Artists
Ofira Henig
Adaptation, Editing and Director
Kinan Azmeh
Music
Khalifa Natour
Dramaturgy and Translation
Ashraf Hanna
Visual Concept
Annie Atedgy-Yellin
Costume Design
Ramy Al-Asheq
Poetry
Miriam Damm
Lighting Design
Saleh Bakri
The Writer
Khalifa Natour
Um Hassan
Carlos Gharzuzi
The Son
Maya Omaia Keesh
The Daughter
Anan Abu Jabir
The Soldier
Basheer Asli
The Child Soldier
Program
The Queen Commanded Him to Forget
on fragments from "My Name Is Adam" by Elias Khoury and inspired by Brecht's "Mother Courage"
Director Ofira Henig—most recently seen in Berlin with her productions The Bees’ Road and KIND OF at the Schaubühne’s Internationale Neue Dramatik Festival—and actor-dramaturg Khalifa Natour have developed a new piece for the Pierre Boulez Saal that blurs the boundaries between theater, music, and poetry as well as between different cultures. The Queen Commanded Him to Forget is based on a novel by Lebanese writer Elias Khoury and also draws inspiration from Brecht’s Mother Courage, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, and the tale of Hansel and Gretel. At the center of the story is the character of Um Hassan, who will do anything to protect her children in times of war. The piece explores the role of literature as a preserver of memory and as part of a process that eternalizes forgetting.
In Arabic with German and English surtitles
Supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation