Das A-Casting

In Germany, Toks would be cast as an asylum seeker in a TV series, but not for Shakespeare's Othello. Lisa is simply too tall. Javeh can play anything, but usually ends up under a headscarf. However, since German television has often been dealing with stories of honor killings, a new field of work has opened up for her.

Three actors make their way through the clichéd depths of the migration foreground. In what future could Toks become pope after all, Javeh play men and Lisa become a woman in a leading position with a family life?

The boundaries of the free choice of roles are narrow and so the three of them take flight: to India, the land of new opportunities with the largest film and television industry in the world. But nothing here is as it says in the travel guide.

In the end, it's all a question of perspective.

A-Casting is a theater performance about the possible appropriation of impossible roles, old viewing habits and new caste systems, an ICE ride through evil clichés and an Air India flight into the future.

The evening was developed from different material. From interviews and personal experiences of the three actors, from scenic texts written by Irawati Karnik, Ajay Krishnan and Florian Hacke as commissioned texts for the actors, improvisations in the sound studio in Bangalore with MD Pallavi and Shashank Prakash and researched curiosities of cultural clichés in intercontinental transit.

A Flinntheater production

Created by Javeh Asefdjah (performance), Toks Körner (performance), Lisa Stepf (performance), Sophia Stepf (director), Irawati Karnik, Ajay Krishnan, Sophia Stepf, Florian Hacke and ensemble (text), Andi Otto, MD Pallavi Arun feat. Shashank Prakash (music), Tilman Neuffer (dramaturgical advice), Lea Sovso (costume), Robert Schlenkermann (light design), ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro (production management)

Supported by Hessian Ministry of Art and Science, Gerhard-Fieseler-Foundation, Cultural Office of the City of Kassel, Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., Sparkasse Kassel, Goethe-Institut Mumbai, Theaterhaus Mitte, karaburun tours

In co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and Schloss Bröllin

Events

Kulturhaus Dock 4 Kassel: September 22 (opening), 24, 25, 30 and October 1 & 2, 2011 / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin: November 18 - 20, 2011 / Kulturhaus Dock 4 Kassel: May 2 - 5, 2012

Press

The three actors, as different and special as each of them are, create a perfect team. With their moving stories and perfect timing, they navigate through the turbulent script with ease and skill, amazing the audience with the range of their craft. (...) It is a dramatic performance with a deep story that many will have to watch more than once to grasp every layer. The main point, however, is clear: We must rethink our ideas – existing clichés and stereotypes in our heads and ask ourselves what is behind dark and light, black and white, beauty and ugliness.


Deutsche Welle