What is flight? What is home? What will the new face of Europe look like? With “Empire”, the final installment of his acclaimed European trilogy, Swiss director Milo Rau is presenting a piece at steirischer herbst for the first time.
In Arabic, Greek, Kurdish and Romanian language with German surtitles
Talk following the performance on Fri 14/10
They come from Greece, Syria, Kurdistan and Romania. Two fled to Europe, two live on its fringes. In “Empire”, the four actors draw on their own histories to probe those questions that crop up only briefly and awkwardly during our daily consumption of the media: What is flight? What is home? And what will the new face of Europe look like?
With the final instalment of his acclaimed European trilogy, Milo Rau is presenting a piece at steirischer herbst for the first time. Not without reason is the Swiss director one of the most successful artists on the continent, which he has been scrutinising for years: disputatious, rigorous and unruffled he makes full use of the possibilities of theatre, not only for documentary purposes, but also to take a highly political stand. He achieves this through re-enactments of historical events and lavishly staged court trials, just as impressively as he does now, in the European trilogy, through the power of narration.
The narrators in “Empire” not only talk about loss, prison, death and rebirth, but also about how they process these experiences through art. After previously dealing with the themes of radicalisation in part 1, “The Civil Wars”, and coming to terms with the past in part 2, “The Dark Ages”, Milo Rau now joins them to risk a glimpse into an uncertain future. Intimate and yet of epic dimensions, they create a portrait of a mythical and real-political empire. Are European traditions endangered, or is migration not simply one of them?
Concept, text and direction Milo Rau
Text and performance Ramo Ali, Akillas Karazissis, Rami Khalaf, Maia Morgenstern
Music Eleni Karaindrou
Dramaturgy and research Stefan Bläske, Mirjam Knapp
Stage and costumes Anton Lukas
Video Marc Stephan
Sound design Jens Baudisch
Technique Aymrik Pech
Directorial assistance Anna Königshofer
Szenography assistance Sarah Hoemske
Directorial guest student Laura Locher
Dramaturgical guest student Marie Roth, Riccardo Raschi
Surtitles IIPM (Translation) Mirjam Knapp
Head of production Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Eva-Karen Tittman
Public relations Yven Augustin
Corporate desgin Nina Wolters
Webmastering Jonas Weissbrodt
Production IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder
Co-produced by steirischer herbst, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin
Supported by Regierenden Bürgermeister von Berlin – Senatskanzlei – Kulturelle Angelegenheiten, Capital Culture Fund Berlin, Pro Helvetia, Migros-Kulturprozent
Kindly backed by Kulturförderung Kanton St. Gallen
In collaboration with Schauspielhaus Graz
Milo Rau / IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder (DE/CH)
Milo Rau, born in Bern in 1977, works as a theatre and film director and as an essayist and lecturer. After studying Sociology, German Studies and Romance Studies in Paris, Zürich and Berlin, in 2007 Rau founded the theatre and film production company IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder, dedicated to the multimedia adaptation of political and social conflicts. The documentary works staged and produced by Rau together with the IIPM, of which he is Director, have been performed at the Wiener Festwochen, the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels and the Berliner Theatertreffen, among other venues. Milo Rau, who ranks among the most renowned and sought-after European directors, is also appearing for the first time at steirischer herbst with “Empire“, the final instalment of his Europe trilogy.
