The Silence

by Falk Richter

Director: Falk Richter
Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz

Author and director Falk Richter focuses on his own family history for the autofictional play "The Silence". His father died before he could reconcile with his son. In a conversation with his mother, Richter examines what troubled his peace of mind for decades: unspoken truths, suppressed secrets, and unresolved traumas. How did the horrors that his father experienced during the war become inscribed into the family history? How did the trauma of his mother's expulsion and flight from West Prussia affect his parents' marriage? How did the author and his sister grow up in post-war provincial West Germany, how did the family reconstruct itself? How do traumas, secrets, and violent oppression continue in the author's own relationships?

The confrontation between mother and son becomes a journey into the abysses of West German bourgeois society from the post-war period to the present day. But how reliable is the author's own memory, how credible is his mother's life story? Couldn't everything have been completely different? Soon the autobiographical and the fictional intermingle, memories contradict each other, and possibilities of other realities open up. In the interplay of autobiography and fiction, hope blossoms: Could a different life, one in which relationships are not based on patriarchal oppression and violence, exist?

Falk Richter, born 1969, is one of the most important directors and authors of contemporary German theater. In his highly acclaimed new work "The Silence", actor Dimitrij Schaad hauntingly portrays Richter's "alter ego" on stage.

The Silence Foto Gianmarco Bresadola P1 0747 — Photo: Gianmarco Bresadola | Foto: Foto: Gianmarco Bresadola

SILENCE PH 3856 Gianmarco Bresadola — Photo: Gianmarco Bresadola

New version in German for the Schaubühne. A first version of the production was premiered at the TNS Strasbourg in co-production with the MC93 Bobigny and the Maison de la Culture d'Amiens.

With: Dimitrij Schaad
Director: Falk Richter
Stage & Costumes: Katrin Hoffmann
Music: Daniel Freitag
Video: Lion Bischof
Dramaturgy: Nils Haarmann / Jens Hillje
Lighting: Carsten Sander

Age: 14+

Photos: Gianmarco Bresadola

Duration: 1h 45m
no interval