Details

In 1947, Bertolt Brecht testified before the anticommunist House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, DC. The absurd questions he was forced to answer form the starting point of this moving, celebrated production by Lina Majdalanie & Rabih Mroué. They shed light on Brecht’s fate against the backdrop of their own emigration, the global rise of the far right, and the increasing restriction of freedom of speech. Henrik Kairies complements the duo’s minimalist and humorous approach with songs by Brecht and Hanns Eisler on the piano. This performance rightly questions just how free and open the liberal democracy in which we live today really is.

Lina Majdalanie (1966, Beirut, Lebanon) and Rabih Mroué (1967, Beirut, Lebanon) have been working together since 1990 as theater directors, performers, and playwrights. Their work centers on the question of how societies and individuals deal with truth, testimony, and the ideologies that shape political and social realities—particularly in contexts of conflict, war, and contested history. Their productions have been presented at numerous international festivals and have received many awards. Most recently, the duo was awarded the 2026 Theatre-Award-Berlin. Majdalanie and Mroué live in Berlin.

Austrian premiere

A coproduction of Festival d’Automne, Paris; CENTQUATRE-PARIS; Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main; Residenz – Schauspiel Leipzig; HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; Berliner Festspiele – Performing Exiles; Kampnagel, Hamburg; Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels; and FFT Düsseldorf
Funded as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

English with German surtitles
100 min.

Photo: Christophe Berlet

Education event
Eat and Greet following the performance
Free Tickets and information here