Bullet Zen

An evening about dopamine, terror and meditation

Cancellation «Bullet Zen»

At this point in time and in view of the current political world situation, we have decided not to release our production “Bullet Zen”.

The piece was based on a true story in which a Swiss Zen monk was kidnapped by a drug cartel in Mexico and tortured as a hostage for several weeks. The moral, the twist in the story, seemed worth telling as a utopian message, namely that the Zen attitude even made the torturer change his mind. So the monk was released, the tormentor followed the Zen spirit.
In the theatrical adaptation by Rodo Guadarrama, Lukas Kubik and Eneas N. Prawdzic, we have been looking for an approach that we can represent artistically and ethically against the background of events and developments in the world over the last few weeks.

We continue to stick to the message of the project: stories that tell of terror and violence and the way to overcome them. And they deserve all the care. However, we did not come to an artistically justifiable result in such a short amount of time. So last night we decided together with the team to cancel the production with a heavy heart.

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Mexico 2013: A Swiss Zen monk is kidnapped by a drug cartel. It's a tried and true barter deal: freedom for money. But this time, the plan seems not to work.

"Bullet Zen" tells the story of two disparate ways of life. On the one hand is the violence-glorifying, wealth- and power-seeking culture of the narcos, on the other the ascetic philosophy of Zen. Solely the pistol, a Swiss SIG P220, which the narco points at his counterpart in a daily ordeal, seems to be their common ground. The monk knows it from the Swiss army. The bullet in the barrel becomes the starting point of a tentative rapprochement whilst also threatening to put a sudden end to it.

A Mexican-Swiss team brings this story, which is based on true events, onto the stage and questions the potential of Buddhist teachings in the context of violence and oppression. Can they help us cope with our crisis-ridden day and age? Midst in the never-ending spiral of dopamine, terror and meditation, in a world on a brink, a sensual parable of possibility emerges.

Languages German/English
Time frame: November 04 - December 14, 2023

Supported by Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Landis & Gyr Stiftung
Thanks to René van den Berg (Shoemaker), Ardita Fetish Fashion (Latex Tailoring)