DUNKELDORF - EIN STADTSPIEL
Theaterkollektiv Pièrre.Vers
27 July 2000, 15:03, Düsseldorf: A bomb explodes at Wehrhahn S-Bahn station, injuring ten people, some of them seriously. An unborn child dies. The victims had only just arrived in the country as ethnic German immigrants and so-called “contingent refugees”, many of them Jewish. From one day to the next, they lost their hopes, prospects and sense of security as a result of this brutal act of violence – until today. Since the devastating attack 24 years ago, two major phases of investigation, a committee of enquiry, a court case and countless discussions in urban society have only led to more questions. Where is the justice?
The theatre collective Pièrre.Vers brings together actors from urban society who were and are involved in coming to terms with the attack in various ways in a chamber play. Is it all fiction? Representatives of the police, press, Antifa and those affected raise questions once again in a process of collective remembrance: Why was the crime never solved?
Were the police blind in the right eye, or did the press complicate the investigation with its media fire? Was the finger-pointing premature? Or were the facts and the profiles of the victims and possible perpetrators clear from the start? The victims remain silent, but that does not mean they are not worried. Who has to answer to whom? Who can blame whom? Who bears responsibility? When will we remember?
Text by Juliane Hendes based on true events in Düsseldorf.
DUNKELDORF was selected for the Theatertreffen 2024 shortlist.
Cast & Credits
With: Julia Dillmann, Azizè Flittner, Daniel Fries, Jonathan Schimmer, Alexander Steindorf, Julia Franken, Barbara Schröer
Director, concept: Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen
Room, costume: Simone Grieshaber
Text, dramaturgy: Juliane Hendes
Composition: Bojan Vuletić
Video: Julia Franken & Barbara Schröer
Production collaboration: Nastasia Radtke
Space and costume design: Leonie Ohlow
Technical coordination: Philippe Waldecker
Sound design: Philipp Kaminsky, Avelina Ost, Sandra Zawada
Production management: Melissa Müller
A production by theatre collective Pièrre.Vers in co-production with the asphalt Festival and the Düsseldorf Festival, supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung des Landes NRW, the Kulturamt Düsseldorf, the Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, the BürgerStiftung Düsseldorf and the Stiftung van Meeteren, in cooperation with the Erinnerungsort Alter Schlachthof an der Hochschule Düsseldorf, the Opferberatung Rheinland and the Antirassistische Bildungsforum Rheinland.
The guest performance is supported by the resumption funding of the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the State Centre for Political Education of North Rhine-Westphalia.
About the artists
Theaterkollektiv Pièrre.Vers is an association of theatre makers based in Düsseldorf, Germany, under the artistic direction of director Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen and actress Julia Dillmann. For more than seven years they have been working closely with author Juliane Hendes to create theatre evenings based on extensive research and interviews on topics such as coming to terms with history, National Socialism and right-wing radicalism.
The resulting productions are a plea for the constant renewal of the work of remembrance, as well as an artistic contribution to coming to terms with history, which can serve to form a critical spirit in the present.
Pièrre.Vers always develops works with the background that art should reflect the present. The works are or were developed in close dialogue with historians at the memorial site, the “Alter Schlachthof” memorial site at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, representatives of the Jewish community, the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, contemporary witnesses, city residents and other partners. Based on the research and interviews, as well as on historical, sociological and ethnological facts, a network of connections between individual places, people and their biographies, as well as the history of the city, will be created.
