Berlin, November 6 2014
Miriam Kičiňová takes a look back on the mutual work started with the Deutsches Theater Berlin one year ago, and the play "Land der ersten Dinge" (written by Nino Haratischwili). The premiere is next week on November 14.
It has been already some time before the start of the project „Bludičky“. But now the third part of the journey through the topic of ageing starts for me.
The first part of the trip started some time ago. It was a year ago when I met Nino Haratischwili, Christa Müller, Malin Nagel and Ulrich Beck for the first time and we started to talk about the topic, our work on the text together and the performances in Berlin and Bratislava.
It was really fun to work on this, but also quite hard to explore our common and very different history. We searched for an interesting approach. And after that Nino came up with her story. A nice story. A strong story. A sad story. A story of hope. A story that tells us that we can understand things better when we know each other’s origins.
And after that, we discussed our visions a lot, our different readings of our history. We had deep talks about feelings that are based on our personal experiences, feelings that remain hidden in our subconsciousness because of historical experiences. Maybe this is why we are still going back to the past. We are still trying to understand, trying not to forget. Thanks to Bludičky, a very important part of my history was opened up to me, the history of my family, as well as that of lots of families in Slovakia. And it is nice that this was opened up to me by someone from abroad. Someone, who can see things in a more objective way. Thanks to Bludičky, we can also understand the history of the last 50 years of German families. Thank you, my German friends.
The second part of the trip took place in Bratislava and it was very strong. We started to rehearse the play Land der ersten Dinge/Bludičky. It was a deep, strong and also passionate meeting. The rehearsals were about questioning, searching and changing. We worked in such a nice atmosphere together and I cannot continue writing without saying thank you to the team : Brit, Karin, Niko, Peter and Thies. For me, it was so impressive to see the work of Gabi Heinz on stage. Of course I know the work of our actors, but seeing her work was something totally new for me and very inspiring for my future work. How is it possible, at the same time, to see a strong emotion on stage and acquire distance to it, always immediately, intensively, and so easily?
A big part of our journey is already over. We really had fun and enjoyed it so much. Of course when comparing two different working system of two big theatre houses, we have to admit that it is not always easy to understand each other and that everyone has different expectations. But the whole experience was very enriching, even if that sounds cliché. But the journey is not over yet, the most important part is in front of us now.
For me, it starts right now, as I just arrived in Berlin to join the team during rehearsals. We are still researching and trying to understand our history, and history in general, better. Therefore, welcome to Berlin!
To be continued....
Miriam Kičiňová
Dramaturge at the Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava
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