Fear eats the Soul by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Production: multicultural city e.V.
Theater, live performance (streaming to Avignon and Milan)
Language: German with multilingual fragments
German surtitles, suitable for people with hearing impairments
Theater im Delphi, Gustav-Adolf-Str. 2, 13086 Berlin
Ticket sale via Delphi, ticket prices: 16,-, reduced 8,-, for groups of 10 or more 5,- EUR,
27.02.2025, 19.30
Followed by a transnational audience discussion with the audience in Avignon and Milan via live stream with simultaneous translation in cooperation with Theaterscoutings Berlin.
28.02.2025, 11.00
School performance
Workshop and audience discussion in cooperation with Theaterscoutings Berlin.
01.03.2025, 19.30
02.03.2024, 15.00
Family performance
Duration: 1 h 20 minutes, without pause
Director: Monika Dobrowlanska
Video: Yukihiro Ikutani
With Helmuth Höger, Elena Louro, Alex Lee, Julia Vandehof, Maik Dehnelt, Rim Mekkaoui, Berfin Akkuzu, Yavuz Akkuzu, Mika Bücking
Performance rights: Verlag der Autoren GmbH & Co KG
“Never again is now” – A provocative satire based on Fassbinder’s masterpiece, which unabashedly addresses the acceptable forms of racism. In one of the leading roles, the well-known film actor Ferhat Keskin.
The phrase resonates deeply with anyone familiar with German history. However, the echoes of 1933 are becoming increasingly louder. In this biting satire, a mirror is held up to society, revealing current social trends. With sharp wit and ironic twists, the audience is challenged to reflect on their own prejudices and stereotypes.
The staging is the theatre adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s film Fear Eats the Soul. This German melodrama, set in Munich, revolves around a scandalous liaison from the 1970s that could very well occur even today, after 50 years. The characters are Emmi, a German widow over 60, and Ali, a Moroccan man 20 years her junior, with a limited command of German. Their relationship, even before marriage, is met with intense resentment from their children, colleagues, shopkeepers, and neighbours, manifesting as anger, hatred, and insults. The couple grapples with numerous challenges unfamiliar to Germans without a migration background.
The director made the significant decision to cast actresses who are themselves migrant workers coming to Germany from various countries such as Chile, Spain, Morocco, the United States, Austria, etc. This choice allowed her to find a medium through which to talk about the theme of labour migration in the 1970s. In this way, current social issues are connected to historical experiences:
multicultural city e.V., Berlin. One of the focal points of the Berlin-based theatre group multicultural city e.V. is the development of experimental theatrical forms resulting from the encounter of different cultures. Artists from all over the world are offered the opportunity to work together.
Monika Dobrowlanska is a theatre and opera director, author, university lecturer in theatre, winner of the Tournesol prize at the 2017 Festival d’Avignon. She sees herself as a European director and successfully combines different theatrical traditions in her productions. www.monikadobrowlanska.com
Press
