„Whoever saves a life saves the world.“

based on real events

The compensation

A project by multicultural city e.V

Festival Synenergy, Novi Sad/ Serbia, 20th of November 2019, 19:00 (duration 85′)

Preview: 8th of November 2019 as part of the award „Mutig“ 2019, Aschaffenburg

Serbian premiere: 20th of November 2019, Festival Synenergy, Novi Sad/ Serbia

German premiere: 28th of November 2019, 11 A.M.

further performances in Berlin: 29th of November 2019, 11 A.M. and 7 P.M., 14th of December 2019 (with live music, Adam Baldych) at 7 P.M.    

location: Werkstatt der Kulturen Wissmannstraße 32 12049 Berlin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Poznań /Poland, she’s been working since 2002as a freelance director with theatres in Germany, Poland,Italy and various artists from Belarus.She obtained her education and vocational training atthe universities in Kraków, Poznań, Bochum and the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts GITIS Moscow.Her first direction know-how stems from her directioninternships and her professional experiences obtainedwhilst working as a director assistant, both of whichshe did simultaneously to the theatre studies. One ofthe most important theatrical experiences, shapingher outlook on stage, was her director internship at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim under the direction of Roberto Ciulli.

She has directed such spectacles as Woyzeck by G.Büchner, Diary of a Madman based on N. Gogol, A Raport to anAcademy by F. Kafka, Family Situations by B. Sbrljanovic,Three Sisters, the 4th act based on A. Chekhov… She hasalso numerous stage readings and international actinglaboratories on her scorecard, where she has often conducted her theatrical experiments on Chekhov, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky or Plato.

In the years 2006 – 2010 she regularly cooperated withMunicipal Theatre in Poznań (Teatr Polski), where shedirected the Polish preview showing of Play-off by G.Spiro (2006), the Polish preview showing of the spectacleMamma Medea by T. Lanoye (2007), the preview showing of Mykwa by P. Rowicki (2009), the Polish previewshowing of Thieves by D. Loher (2010) as well as numerous stage readings.In 2011 she made her opera debut on stage of OperaHouse in Poznań (Teatr Wielki) – it was the preview showing of Ophelia by Prasqual.

In Berlin she coorporated with institutions, such as Maxim Gorki Theater, the Akademie der Künste (Academyof the Arts, Berlin), the Hebbel Theatre, the KunsthausTacheles (Art House Tacheles), the Polnisches Institut(Polish Institute), the Flemish representation, the Instituto Cervantes and the Ramon Llull Institute.

In her artistic work she successfully combines the traditions of Polish, German and Russian theatre. She wasinvited many times to show her spectacles on international festivals. In September 2012, she founded the international artists’ collective multicultural city in Berlin, which developed documentary theatre productions. The encounter of different cultures results into creation of experimental theatrical forms. Apart from that, multiculturalcity provides a meeting platform for artists from Western and Eastern Europe.

The premiere of its first production Displaced Women, which was shown at variousfestivals in Europe, took place in May 2013 at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. Her performace It’s because of her/C’est á cause d’elle withthe Belarussian Drama Theatre Minsk received in Festivald’Avignon 2017 an audience award (Prix Tournesol). AnIndependent jury of spectators choose our performancefrom 1500 of the OFF Program to top six performances ofthe festival and winner in the category „Across borders“.

ABOUT THE PLAY

The play The Compensation will have its premiere at SYNERGY 19 Festival. It is created in sort of co-production ofMulticultural city troupe and Novi Sad Theatre whoseyouth-student drama club is included in this project.„Whoever saves a life saves the world.“Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 37aIn no other case of compensation towards Holocaust 18 survivors payments were deprived that persistently as with the „ghetto-pensions“ – Jewish children andyouth fought for their life in the ghettos of the Nazi terror regime, where they often had to graft in inhumaneconditions just to get a plate of soup or a meal ticket.

Nevertheless they were forced to pay into the pensionfund, for instance via the Jews’ Council. Later, as theGerman Parliament passed an appropriate law in 2002,some survivors tried to receive a symbolic pension. Forthem, it was rather a matter of recognizing their stories– stories of exploitation, suffering, which they had toface in their childhood, and because of which some ofthem broke and were left with a hurting soul for ever.

However, this means once again a fight – namely theone about the recognition of their work before theGerman Social Courts. Judge Jan-Robert von Renessesupported the victims selflessly more than anybodyelse, despite the resistance of judicial authorities. According to the Israeli ambassador in Berlin this is „thefight of the grandson of an SS man for the pensionsof the ghettos’ survivors“.

For this purpose he receivedconsiderable attention in Israel, the award for humanity by The European Janusz Korczak Academy and theDachau-award for moral courage. Ever since his careerwas shunt aside.An internationally prestigious team of artists joined forces to give voice to those who were ignored for decades.

Based on historic testimony and real events the performance will show, on the one hand, the former strugglefor survival in the ghettos and, on the other hand, thepresent fight for the acknowledgment of the truth before the Social Courts The play will be developed and implemented artistically by the director and award winnerof the „Prix-Tournesol“ (category: „Beyond borders“) ofthe Festival d’Avignon 2017. Monika Dobrowlanska.

Cooperation partner: European Janusz Korczak Academy e.V.,Festival Synenergie Novi Sad/ Serbia, Jugend mit ZukunftgGmbH, Aschaffenburg/ Aschaffenburger Mutig-PreisSponsors: Berlin Senate Chancellery – Cultural Affairs (Programme Intercultural Projects), Foundation Between Bridges,Foundation Berthold Liebinger