Bitef

★ Kaserne Basel is theatre that discovers reality: groups like Rimini Protokoll and She She Pop put real people on stage, not actors, allowing them to present themselves and their experiences. Kaserne Basel embraces this theme. After several successful works, her lead character, Shaheen Dili-Riaz, who was born in Bangladesh and now lives in Berlin, has decided to film a movie about his own family. Clips of this can be seen during the performance. We meet the patriarchal father, who is unable to forgive Shaheen’s sister for getting married without his consent, and the mother, who after three years decides to meet up with her daughter and son-in-law without her husband’s knowledge.

But for Maier it is more about the filmmaker than the film. The stage set designed by Valerie Hess presents Shaheeen’s study and living room; the artist has actually transported his own furniture to Basel extra for this purpose. The actress Anne Haug initially wanders through the room, describing Shaheen’s life in Berlin, reads incoming e-mails and takes a call from his ex-girlfriend, Barbara, in Warsaw. Later on, Shaheen, Barbara and their son participate in a Skype video chat live on stage. While Anne reveals details about Shaheen, he appears and starts to film her. He hardly puts the camera down during the entire evening and the images he films are projected onto a screen at the back of the stage. Documentary theatre: Past is Present pushes the form of this genre." Alfred Ziltner

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New Theatre Tendencies

48 Bitef 14

swiss arts council prchelvetia