by Alvis Hermanis, ensemble and others
Guest performance by Schauspiel Köln
First performance in Austria

Premiere on 20 August 2009 - 7.30 p.m., Theater Kosmos

When the "first one" had a difficult task to accomplish, some secret undertaking for the benefit of the creatures, he went to a particular spot in the forest, lit a fire and said prayers – and everything happened just as he had envisaged it. When a generation later the "next one" had to do the same, he went to the same place in the forest and said: "We can't make the fire any more, but we can say the prayers" – and again everything went as he had wished. Another generation later, the "next one after him" had to do the same deed. He, too, went into the forest and said: "We can't light a fire any more, and we can't say the prayers any more either; but we know the place in the forest where all that belongs, and that must be enough" – and it was enough. But when, another generation later, the "next one after him" had to perform the same task, he sat down on a stool and said: "We can't make any fire, we can't say any prayers, we no longer know the place in the forest, but we can tell the story of it all." And his story, all by itself, had the same effect as the actions of the three others. 

After his first production for the theatre group Schauspiel Köln, Cologne Affair, Alvis Hermanis offers a montage of four tales by Nobel Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer. The production, entitled The Secrets of the Kabbalah, is a continuation of Hermanis's search for a form of theatre which is more interested in life than in itself, which examines the narrative process, and is able to distinguish precisely between affect and emotion. Singer's protagonists are rooted in the culture of the Jews of eastern European origin - whether a small Jewish village in Poland, or Warsaw or New York. His stories are often so full of events that the reader may not take them all in – but action is not what they are not about. They are about listening and remembering. Singer was born in Radzymin, Poland, in 1904 and grew up in Warsaw. He received a traditional Jewish upbringing and attended a rabbinical seminary. At the age of 22 he began to write for a Yiddish-language newspaper, first in Hebrew and then in Yiddish. In 1935, he emigrated to the USA and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He died in Miami in 1991.

Further performances: 21 and 22 August 2009 - 7.30 p.m.

Admission price: 26 euros