Licht (Light)
Die Geschichten jesidischer Frauen (THE STORIES OF YAZIDI WOMEN)
Performance Social/Urban Movements Theatre & Performance
There is little that is unheard-of, little unimaginable horrors left in our times. Yet the crimes of the Islamic State against Yazidi women in Northern Iraq is among those. Some demons must be fought within. In LICHT, director Tea Tupajić invites Yazidi women to do exactly this in a performative setting that is simultaneously intimate as it is political. Following a one-year preparatory period and performances in Munich and Brussels, these women take to the stage and tell us what happened. Exactly as they remember it. They are bleeding it out, once and then never again, piece by piece, until they cannot go on anymore. They do this to ensure that what happened did not happen in vain. From their faith in theatre, they entrust their story to the audience. A part of this story will be told every evening. LICHT will last as long as it takes until the whole story has been told.
Tea Tupajić invited the Munich Kammerspiele as well as the FFT and the Kaaitheater Brussels staff to design a curtain for the stage together. More than 50 people hand-embroidered the premiere night’s star constellation onto the curtain. With needle and thread, they inscribed every star with that which could have killed them. The performances of LICHT V and LICHT VI begin at 7 pm and last several hours. The narrators decide when they will end.
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Tea Tupajić (Sarajevo, 1984) is a Croatian theatre and film director. During long processes, she works with protagonists who appear reticent, or who stand to lose much on stage. Together with them, she invokes the power and depth of theatre to advance to that place where no language and no other medium reaches. Tupajić’s works have been shown internationally and have also won international awards.
Storytellers: Awaz Abdi, Najlaa Mato. Direction: Tea Tupajić. Dramaturgy and Production: Katrina Mäntele. Dramaturgical and Conceptual Counsel: Olivia Ebert, Mehdi Moradpour. Stage and Costumes: Hannah von Eiff, Lisa Chiara Kohler. Music: Roel Meelkop. Sound: Viola Drewanz. Lighting: Charlotte Marr. Curtain: Awaz Abdi, Alyssia Achille, Erwin Aljukić, Barbara Biel, Lisa Braner, Dîlan Z. Çapan, Olivia Ebert, Hannah von Eiff, Leyla Ferman, Felicitas Friedrich, Gundula Gerngroß, Nicolas Hemmelmann, Josef Hofmann, Maria Hörger, Carolin Husemann, Iroha Kaneshiro, Melisa Kaya, Lisa Chiara Kohler, Simone Kremser, Nikolai Kuchin, Elvira Liesenfeld, Christine Maaß, Charlotte Marr, Katrina Mäntele, Jutta Masurath, Najlaa Matto, Heloà Pizzi Mauro, Roel Meelkop, Josh Menges, Mehdi Moradpour, Barbara Mundel, Ronya Othmann, Esther Patrocinio Sánchez, Barbara Patz, Annette Paulmann, Gina Penzkofer, Sandra Petermann, Katharina Quandt, Jeanette Raue, Sofie Reindl-Grüger, Stefanie Rendtorff, Steffen Roßmanith, Daniela Schroll, Anette Schultheiss, Sabine Schutzbach, Tea Tupajić, Constantin Weidenbach, Volker Wiltsch, Teresa Winkelmann, Yue Ying, and others who wish to remain anonymous. Live Interpreting: Tea Tupajić. Assistant Direction: Dîlan Z. Çapan. Assistant Costuming: Heloà Pizzi Mauro. Stage Management: Stefanie Rendtorff. Therapeutical and Creative Counsel: Rik Vermeulen. Caregiver Narrators: Leyla Ferman. Artistic Production Management: Constantin Weidenbach. Technical Production Management: Carolin Husemann, Julia Schröder. Stage Management Master: Marcel Homack.
credits
A Munich Kammerspiele production in co-production with Kaaitheater Brussels, FFT Düsseldorf and Luzerner Theater. As part of “Female Peace Palace”, a joint project of Munich Kamerspiele and the Monacensia at the Hildebrandhaus. Supported by the Federal Cultural Foundation. Supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
