How does one represent brilliance; it is easy to trace the lines of brilliance through narrative. Good (and bad) pieces have emerged doing the work of biography, oscillating between the less than miraculous Jobs to Paul Schrader’s seductive and experimental Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. However, it is hard to recreate the timbre that imparts the moment of epiphany, the elation of discovery that is at the center of genius.  Performed only three times thus far, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s seminal 1976 opera, Einstein on the Beach echoes that sentiment.

With no driving plot, the opera plots Albert Einstein’s persona through interlocking motifs in a matrix of lyrical permutations, wicking away the dramatic heaviness that characterizing the genre to become something like tone poem and performance art. Cradled in the envelope of Wilson’s rarified aesthetic, Lucinda Childs‘ subtle choreography, the poetic dictations and enumerations, and the torrent of minimalist orchestration dovetail precisely in the four acts and intervening ‘Knee Plays.’ While oblique in content and abstruse in meaning, the opera does not fail to sound a sense of wonder in the natural world, the ecstasy of the human connection.

For those curious, a recording of the performance at its revival at the Théâtre du Châtelet is available on CultureBox until July 7th.

A new contemporary performing arts festival Foreign Affairs by Berliner Festsipele brings the beauteous choreographies of legendary William Forsythe and more on stage…

‘Let them eat pepper gas’
Recep Tayyip Antoinette

‘Welcome the the gas festival’, ‘There is a beach under the stones’, ‘There is a revolution going on here, Signorita’,‘I could not find a slogan’ were some of the slogans written on the walls of beauteous cities of Turkey, the land of pepper. All you have been seeing in the news was a part of the festival organized by the dystopian party of the Prime Minister. One night, in thepalace of the Sultan (!) where a gathering was held accompanied by rakı, food prepared with lots of pepper and dance − a mixture of what he adores − guests decided to write a theater play…

Humour  is being spread in the streets of Turkey, still, on the 17th day of the protests. Today, mothers came to Gezi Park, to make a human chain between the police and the chapullers while the brutality was running wild on the streets of Ankara, the capital. One should also point out that every declaration of the government is like another episode of Monty Python.

The internationally renowned Freedom Theatre from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank will be performing its play Stolen Dreams. The Freedom Theatre is an outstanding initiative for the creation of a future Palestinian society which attempts to generate a positive identity through art, culture and education. Stolen Dreams is an homage to Juliano Mer-Khamis, the founder of the Freedom Theatre who was murdered in 2011.

In addition to this explosive production the program also includes current performances from the JugendtheaterBüro, the Grips Theater Berlin, the P-14 Volksbühne Berlin as well as the performance group of the Schaubühne Berlin.

Read more about the festival here.
See the complete program here.

Youth Theatre Festival
FESTIWALLA 2012
DARE REAL [DEMO!CRACY]
November 1 – 3, 2012, free admission
Haus der Kulturen der Welt / John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 / 10557 Berlin
Reservations recommended: 030-48815220, isolde.waller@grenzen-los.eu

Photo: Stolen Dreams, Freedom Theatre, Jenin, directed by Qais Sadi

1920s… Years of Charleston and Flappers like movie star Louise Brooks; cabarets and Dada! After being overwhelmed by Mike Nelson’s work in the newly discovered abandoned cabaret theater from 1920s in Berlin’s Gartenstrasse, bumping into Thames and Hudson’s new publication Berlin in the 20s was a nice coincidence. The book is starting with a description quoted from the novel Emil and the Detectives:

‘Berlin is all hustle and bustle. Loud, hectic and chaotic, it is a muddle, a cacophony, a whirl of the senses.’

From political situations to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Georg Grosz and Mary Wigman, discovering the Zeitgeist would be a nice Sunday activity.

The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) calls for the return of 3,300,000 Jews to Poland in order to re-establish the annihilated Jewish community. The movement was initiated by Israeli-born artist Yael Bartana in 2007 and has since spread internationally. It aims to create an atmosphere for a Jewish appearance in Europe. The Jews of today are not the same people who were expelled from Europe—the Europeans of today are not the ones responsible for the ethnic cleansing. This may be the appropriate time to unite again—and change Europe and Israel for the better.

The JRMiP is a response to these times of crisis, when faith has been exhausted and old utopias have failed. The aim of the First Congress of the JRMiP is to ultimately formulate the concrete platform of the movement and collectively imagine the future. The three-day long gathering departs from a letter of the late leader of the movement, S?awomir Sierakowski, found after his assassination, and considers the following questions:

- What should be changed in the EU to welcome the Other?
- What should be changed in Poland to become part of the revived EU?
- What should be changed in Israel to become part of the Middle East?

For the first time since its foundation, JRMiP members assemble, joined by international speakers, to reflect upon particular demands. The movement needs all of you who sympathize with the issues of different Diasporas in general.

Watch the official promo video here.

First International Congress of the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) in Berlin
May 11 – 13, 2012
Daily from 3 – 10.30 pm
Hebbel am Ufer – HAU 1 , Stresemannstrasse 29, 10963 Berlin
In the frame of the 7th Berlin Biennale
More Information on the Congress / Program / Tickets

Medea is a project directed by Dimitris Papaioannou with the team of Mesa Project. As Die Walküre by Wagner, their work lasts six hours, from 17.30 till 23.30. The exciting point of this project is that, as an audience, one may come and go whenever s/he wants, create her/his own composition by choosing when and from which seat to watch. Besides the outstanding stage and lighting design, costumes and the choreography are breathtaking. Unfortunately, in order to see them, one must go to Athens.

Detectives Jimmy McNulty and Lester Freamon who love each other’s company are re-united as Iago and Othello at Sheffield Crucible from 15 September to 15 October.