Safe House

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

In 1965, at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, James Baldwin, the much venerated intellectual and author, and William F. Buckley Jr., a prominent pioneer of the New Right, clashed in a spectacular debate at the University of Cambridge: was the American Dream only possible at the expense of the country’s Black population? The invitation was issued by the Cambridge Union, the oldest student debating club in the world. On one side was one of the most important voices of the Civil Rights Movement, on the other the »father of modern American conservatism«. With »Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge«, »Elevator Repair Service«, which has been called one of New York’s »few truly essential theatre companies«, continues its successful engagement with documentary materials staged in innovative, verbatim productions. In this latest offering, the company delivers a timeless intellectual debate about racism and society. Baldwin’s powerful and convincing analysis of the structural discrimination and multifaceted repression of the Black population in America, and Buckley’s eerily familiar reaction to it, are brought to life in a word for word performance. The show ends with an imagined conversation between Baldwin and his close friend Lorraine Hansberry, an activist and the author of »A Raisin in The Sun«, the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway.
ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE (ERS) was founded in 1991 by director John Collins. Its best known works include »Gatz«, a prize-winning staging of the entire text of »The Great Gatsby«, »The Sound and The Fury« and »Arguendo«. ERS has won numerous prizes and distinctions, including multiple Lucille Lortel Awards, a Bessie Award and an Obie Award for sustained excellence. This is the company’s first appearance in Berlin since 1998.   
KOMPOSITION: Anna MullarkeySONGTEXT: Enda WalshBÜHNE UND KOSTÜME: Katie DavenportLICHT: Adam SilvermanVIDEO DESIGN: Jack PhelanTON: Helen AtkinsonREGIE ASSISTENZ: Eoghan CarrickGESANGSCOACH: Andrea AinsworthMASKE: Tee ElliottPRODUZENT: Craig Flaherty
MIT: Kate Gilmore