On the discomfort of Living
Lecture performance with tea and slides
In the production “On the Discomfort of Living,” which premiered at Schweizer5 in autumn 2023 and is now being adapted for the theater, director Eleonora L. Herder goes in search of the hidden echoes of her family history.
What is the silver teapot from a Jewish department store doing 73 years after its disappearance at Berlin's Spandau train station? How did amoebic dysentery, widespread in Sicily, become an accomplice to Nazi racial policy? What do the sleeping pills taken by the director's grandmother have to do with the death of Ingeborg Bachmann? Who carved the swastika on her great-grandfather's grave, and where is John Paul Getty III's ear today?
The lecture performance “On the Discomfort of Living” attempts to explore these and other pressing questions.
In a seemingly private living room setting, Herder uses documents and objects from her family to tell an alternative history of German-Jewish identity, in which the boundaries between the political and the private, between the stories of victim and perpetrator, blur. A restlessness repeatedly arises, and the question arises as to whether it is even possible to be at home.
Language: German
Duration: approx. 75 minutes
Performance: Despina Apostolou, Lela Herder and Liese Lyon
Piano: Despina Apostolou
Voice-over: Beatrice Magnus-Wiebel
Text and direction: Eleonora L. Herder
Dramaturgy and research: Tim Schuster
Creative Producer: honest work – independent cultural office
Stage, costume and lighting design: Marina Rengel Lucena
Sound design and musical consulting: Jonas Harksen
Production assistance and public relations: Joanna Plastrotmann
Evening play leader: Maren Burger
Graphics: Anna Pirot and Felix Kosok (Bureau 069)
Location Scouting: Michelle Koprow
Advice: Jan Mech
In memory of Simon
Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art, the Rudolf Augstein Foundation and the Performing Arts Fund.
With kind support from Villa Gründergeist.
Andpartnersincrime receives multi-year funding from the city of Frankfurt am Main.
Premiere: Schweizer5, Schweizer Straße 5, Frankfurt am Main,
Preview on November 31, 2023 at 7 p.m.
Public premiere on December 1, 2023 at 7 p.m.
Further performances on 1 December at 7 pm/ 2 December at 5.30 pm/ 3 December at 7 pm/
December 8th at 7 p.m. / December 9th at 5:30 p.m
"In my family," it says right at the beginning, "there's an incredible amount of talking. And yet it's characterized by silence." And suddenly you're talking, chatting, remembering, right in the middle of the performance."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Living on the Discomfort of Life" promises curious characters and beautiful photographs. It's an intimate evening event for all those who, just before Christmas, aren't in the mood for the typical, kitschy Christmas plays and instead are interested in current affairs and politics over a cup of tea, says Polzer.
Journal Frankfurt
"'On the Discomfort of Living' is a tentative performance, a touching one. Some of it resonates with your own family, others sound pretty wild."
Frankfurter Rundschau
