The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner
by Collective Ma'louba
Photo: Tom Dachs
Duration: 85 min
Language: Arabic with German/English subs
Text: Mudar Alhaggi
Direction: Omar Elerian
Actors: Wael Kadour, Mohammad Alrashi
Design: Jonas Vogt
Research, dramaturgical advice:
Eric Altorfer
Producer International:
Eckhard Thiemann
Co-produced by: euro-scene leipzig,
Theater an der Ruhr and Factory International
In cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer
The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner interrogates the true story of one of the most wanted Nazi criminals to escape sentencing. Instrumental to the deportation of over 100,000 people to concentration camps and ghettoes, Alois Brunner evaded numerous arrest attempts – fleeing to Damascus where he was instrumental in building Syria’s intelligence services. Arriving in twentyfirst century Berlin as a refugee, Syrian playwright Mudar Alhaggi discovers Brunner’s story and begins to research obsessively before disappearing...
In this gripping play, we meet two actors piecing together the fragments of Alhaggi’s research as personal experience, world history, truth and fiction all collide. Weaving together Syrian and German history, The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner explores exile, accountability and political memory – and the complex thread that ties the past to the present.
It raises searing questions about refuge, justice and hope.
Contributors
collective ma'louba
theater company
Ma’louba – Arabic for "Upside Down" – was founded as a collective by Syrian theater makers, who graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus and are now based across Europe. Collective Ma’louba’s works reflect on the lived experiences of Arabs in a global context: their historical, political and colonial links and the unsettled status of existences. Collective Ma’louba’s works are always topical and include themes of migration, identity, culture, freedom and the nature of theater. Their creations Your Love is Fire (2017), Days in The Sun (2018), Reine Formsache (2019), The Return of Danton (2021) and Up There (2022) have toured extensively including Theater an der Ruhr, Mülheim; Kammerspiele, München; Made in Germany Festival, Stuttgart; Summerhall, Edinburgh; and Novi Sad, Serbia. Collective Ma’louba was initiated in 2016 by Theater an der Ruhr to offer professional working conditions to Syrian artists in Germany.
mudar alhaggi
playwright
Mudar Alhaggi is a playwright, dramaturg, cultural activist and co-artistic director of Collective Ma’louba. He graduated from The Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 2005 and is now based in Berlin. His productions with Collective Ma’louba have been presented internationally in Germany, UK and Serbia. His play "The Return of Danton" premiered at Shubbak Festival (digitally) and Münchner Kammerspiele (physically) in 2021. The Stage called it: "a nuanced piece of meta theatre about revolution and German theatre" and "clever, multi-dimensional piece of writing". His plays always have a biographical or autobiographical dimension, setting his own situation in relation to political, historical and societal conditions. His 2015 diaries after his arrival in Germany became the radio-play "Barsach", elements of which were integrated into the play "Your Love is Fire". His subsequent plays "Reine Formsache" and "The Return of Danton", both for Collective Ma’louba, explore key moments in the lives of refugee artists within a European context.