Dunkeldorf

27 July 2000, 15:03 pm, Düsseldorf: A bomb explodes at the Wehrhahn S-Bahn station, injuring ten people, some seriously. An unborn child dies. The victims had just arrived in the country as immigrants and so-called quota refugees, many of them of Jewish faith. In an instant, they lost their hopes, perspectives and sense of security as a result of this brutal act of violence – and still do to this day. Since the devastating attack, 23 years ago by now, two major investigations, a committee of enquiry, a court case and countless discussions in the city’s society have only led to further questions. Where is justice?

The Theaterkollektive Pièrre.Vers brings together actors from the city’s community who were and are involved in various ways in coming to terms with the attack in a chamber play. Representatives of the police, the press, Antifa and those affected raise questions once again in a process of collective remembrance: Why could the crime never be solved? Did the police turn a blind eye or did the press obstruct the investigation with its medial barrage? Did Antifa make it too easy for themselves by pointing the finger to the far right? Or were the facts of the case as well as the profiles of victims and possible perpetrators clear from the start? Those affected remain silent, but that does not mean they are without concerns. Who has to justify themselves to whom? Who is allowed to blame whom? Who bears responsibility? Why do we forget, when do we remember?

After their successful four-part cycle “Historification” and the examination of Nazi crimes in Düsseldorf, director Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen and author Juliane Hendes now set out on the traces of the state capital’s recent history with “Dunkeldorf” and ask: What does it say us about our culture of remembrance when after only twenty years oblivion sets in?

“Dunkeldorf” has made it onto the shortlist of the Theatertreffen 2024. An independent jury of seven theatre critics viewed a total of 690 productions in 82 cities in German-speaking countries and agreed on the best 43 productions of the season, which were included on the shortlist and hotly debated. In addition to “Dunkeldorf”, only four other productions from NRW made it onto the shortlist. A final selection of ten productions is invited to the Theatertreffen Berlin each year.

In the coming years, the Theaterkollektive Pièrre.Vers will deal artistically with events of far-right violence in the recent history of the Federal Republic of Germany and will receive top-level funding from the State of NRW for this purpose, among others.

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What the press says:

“The evening dismays and enriches. Once again it proves a weighty dimension and the enormous potential of theatre: to bring history up close, to provide memories with vividness, whose half-life seems to be decaying ever faster.” (nachtkritik)

“Author Juliane Hendes and director Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen succeed in creating a polyphonic, demanding picture of the events, which can stand pars pro toto for a fundamental problem of the Federal Republic of Germany: for the eternal underestimation, relativisation and ignoring of right-wing terror, attack after attack, murder after murder.” (Theater heute)

“Documentation and interpretation are artfully kept in balance in ‘Dunkeldorf’. This is a strength of the theatre collective that has already been visible in other productions.” (Rheinische Post)

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with Julia Dillmann, Azizè Flittner, Daniel Fries, Jonathan Schimmer, Alexander Steindorf as well as Julia Franken and Barbara Schröer
Director, concept: Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen
Stage, costumes: Simone Grieshaber
Text, dramaturgy: Juliane Hendes
Composition: Bojan Vuletić
Video: Julia Franken & Barbara Schroer
Production assistance: Nastasia Radtke
Stage, costumes assistance: Leonie Ohlow
Technical coordination: Philippe Waldecker
Sound engineering: Philipp Kaminsky, Avelina Ost, Sandra Zawada
Production management: Melissa Müller