Sunday, 11/24/2024
at 7:00 PM


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About people who take the risky path across the Mediterranean, hoping to find safety in Europe.

Subtitles in Arabic, English, and French

The Mediterranean Monologues are documentary theater. Author Michael Ruf (Word and Heartbeat) conducts interviews that last several hours, sometimes several days. These interviews are then merely shortened and condensed. Nothing is invented in the process, and the linguistic expression is retained. Verbatim, literal theater. Inspired by these interviews, Michael Ruf also wrote song lyrics that were musically implemented in collaboration with composers. This led to "Tons of Water" (composition: Marlène Colle), "We fall into silence" (composition: Torsten Knoll), and "The Memories always return" (composition: Peer Kleinschmidt). Since December 2021, these songs have been an integral part of the Mediterranean Monologues.

The Mediterranean Monologues tell the stories of people who take the risky path across the Mediterranean, hoping to live safely in Europe - about Libyan coast guards, Italian rescue services, and German authorities who prevent this, and about activists who are countering the deaths in the Mediterranean. These activists convince the coast guards, as volunteers at Alarmphone, to rescue people in distress at sea or learn at Sea Watch how to save people from drowning - in short, they do what should be the most natural thing: saving human lives!

It is as if the actors speak directly to the people in the audience, reaching out a hand and pulling them into a world that will no longer leave the viewers cold: entangled, intertwined, connected and networked with the protagonists of the Mediterranean Monologues, the audience anxiously follows the paths of the told stories. When the actors whisper, fall silent, delicately throw a word into the room, occasionally become louder, raise their voices demanding or angrily, and once nearly scream, the sounds do not reach the audience abstractly; instead, the audience is directly and physically touched by what is said. When the actress looks at the audience, they are included in the events that they know and believe happened in reality.

Followed by audience discussions with activists

With English, Arabic, and French subtitles

Possibly remaining tickets at the box office

Event data provided by: Reservix