
Based on David Grossman's novel of the same name
Co-production of Deutsches Theater, Berlin / Salzburg Festival / Burgtheater, Vienna
Dušan Pařízek
Tommy Hoyza
Kamila Polívková
Samuel Finzi as Dov Grinstein
Kathleen Morgeneyer as Pitz
Antoni Donchev - piano accompaniment
Annotation: Dov Grinstein is a stand-up comedian, a provocateur, an artist with his own show, always ready to succumb to the wishes of the audience. In a hall, in the desolate industrial area of Netanya, in a town between Haifa and Tel Aviv, he goes out for his last performance. A show like no other, shocking and disturbing. Dov is ruthlessly frank - he mocks at the audience, teases the viewers, insults them, then apologizes with tears in his eyes. He plays the fool, tells stupid and witty, vulgar and harmless jokes. Nothing is spared from his words - neither the Shoah and its victims, nor Israel's policy in the Palestinian territories.
For almost two hours, Dov angrily fights for people's attention, because no one should be left indifferent. He can offer much more than a successful show: he has to tell about his "personal Chernobyl", about the trauma, the guilt that poisoned his life. Dov wants to settle old scores - with his friend Avishai, whom he has invited to the show, and this must be done in front of the audience. The defence of humor he armed himself with helped him survive and made him much tougher. He is merciless to the history of his country, to the unimaginable pain that almost every family carries within itself. And he is only seemingly indifferent to the deadly conflict with the "Arabs".
Gradually, the audience leaves the hall, not everyone can and wants to follow the passion for exposure demonstrated by this "kind, cheerful joke teller". Only Pitz, his neighbor from childhood, remains an attentive listener - she knows another Dov. The dreamer, the "good boy" she would never forget.
The performance is in German language with Bulgarian subtitles.
Eva-Maria Voigtländer
Sarah Kurze / Luca Palli
Arno Declair
August 8, 2018, Salzburg
September 5, 2018, Vienna
May 5, 2019, Berlin