Gebrochenes Licht / قوس قزح (Refracted light)

“qaus quzah”, arabic for rainbow and for iris, refers to the physical process of refractive light, an ephemeral beauty that emerges from the joining of differences. the syrian new-zurich author lubna abou kheir thinks arabic and writes german. with this piece she tells a story from our global village, in which distances are sometimes to be overcome at the risk of one’s life, sometimes with a simple click on the mouse. instead of light, in this piece it is the connections that splinter. they open up, via escape or whatsapp, via transmigration and google maps — and disappear, spanning colors between life and death. a recruit and his broken phone that only dials one number. a young woman in zurich, whose connections to the world, but also in the chat with her mother in exile in istanbul, are deteriorating. a little swiss boy with a mission from another life that breaks into his nursery. and a cab driver, whose navigation system points to damascus from zurich, and who feels that he can change the face of the world with four wheels. the zurich director ivna žic, herself a border crosser between writing and staging, has a lucid sense for text and an obsession for language(s), multilingualism and the spaces that open up in between.

“from syrian everyday language, which negotiates with powerful imagery, and from newly sought and newly found german, characters come to life who seem to have fallen from the world of magical realism onto the stage. the small theatrical miracle is also made possible by ivna žic’s direction. she finds for the eccentric idiom of kheir a state of aggregation that does not fix anything that does not have to be fixed. for here trauma resists being told, because it can only be experienced; and in the same way language resists grammar, limits and supposed accuracy. this contemplation alone makes a visit to the theater a happy experience.” translated with www.deepl.com/translator (free version)(nzz of 7.11.2019)

“in the refracted light, one sees many things more clearly. so we felt spellbound by a 70-minute sparkling poem about the abysses of our time.” (tages-anzeiger of 2.11.2019)

picture: philip frowein

premiere (saal): 1.11.2019

location: neumarkt saal