Dear reader
Theatre can uncover hidden layers. In ‘Thoughts on Theatre’, Amani Abuzahra describes how experiences become embedded in attitudes, glances and reflexes, how her everyday smile became a learned defence mechanism, and how theatre can make these visible and disrupt them.
These layers are also at the heart of journalist Suban Biixi’s conversation with Fatima Moumouni and Zainab J Lascandri. The artists speak of growing up as Black children, of loneliness and racism, of the paradox of being seen in the wrong place and yet not being seen at all. From the experiences archived in the body grows a quiet longing for a different future, for peace.
Theatre is also capable of countering the loud and fast-paced present with slowness, nuances, polyphony and a shared entering into relationship. Dramaturg Noa Winter offers an insight into the programme focus ‘Communities of Hope’, in which hope, the future and the present are linked.
This is also the case with Hadija Haruna-Oelker, a journalist and Black mother of a disabled child, who has been working for years on the question of how coexistence amidst difference is possible. In her portrait, author Marah Rikli shows that Haruna-Oelker’s work is less an indictment than an invitation to think of dignity unconditionally and to renegotiate community.
After a deliberate break, Anouchka Gwen returns to the stage as a solo artist with a newfound sense of self. In conversation, the musician describes vulnerability not as a weakness: art can open up a space that feels like an embrace.
In conversation, the acclaimed Brazilian author and director Carolina Bianchi reflects on her international breakthrough with ‘The Bride and The Goodnight Cinderella’, on her career and her artistic practice. Theatre as an existential necessity, as a space of infinite possibilities; confusion is the perspective, friendship the survival strategy.
The special feature uses two contributions by Mani Owzar to show how a hopeful, fairer future can be worked towards in everyday school life. Seemingly neutral terms and routines are scrutinised. And the impact of implementing gender-equitable and discrimination-sensitive education is highlighted.
Once again, you’ll find our regular features: photographer Hannah Gottschalk visits rehearsals for ‘PERCEPTIONS’ by choreographer Anna Chiedza Spörri. Artist and musician Rada Leu draws a comic based on the performance ‘Wen Keng We Meet? – On Connection’. In the fashion column, artist Lovis Heuss presents comfortable, colourful and genderqueer fashion. And cabaret artist and author Lisa Christ presents the future as a user’s guide for everyday life and the soul, conceived from the perspective of the wardrobe.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue.
Rahel Bains, Kathrin Veser, Miriam Walther
