So welcome, everybody, to the Martin University Theatre Center here at the Graduate Center. CUNY, my name is Frank Henschka. I'm the director of the Segal Center. We do bridge academia and professional theater international and American theater. And today is a really great day. In our calendar is the opening of the Penville Voices Festival. So over 10 years, we have had the privilege and honor to be part of that significant literary festival, the most, I think, significant one and important one in the US. That was created by Paul Alston and Salmon Rush, together with Michael Roberts, to open what they call the tunnel vision of America, placing the importance that we should know, what people write about, think about it, other countries. Their statistics says 95% of all books are from the US. One you can buy here from Great Britain, the rest five. Half of it might be from France or Germany because there are some subsidies. So it's one or two books that comes from the other parts of the world. And this is not enough. If you would be a musician, you would listen to music from all around the world. Actually, you would really want to get influences that you think you haven't heard of. And that inspires you.  And I think this is a theater that also we should be doing. And I think the Gorky, which we invited this year to come, is a theater like this that really produces locally for the city of Berlin, but really has a global span. Normally, we have playwrights from different continents, different countries, from Africa, Asia, from Australia, Latin America, South America, mostly not from Britain. But this time, we said we're going to invite this theater to highlight an extraordinary work. It's what we think the theater that perhaps radiates most energy at the moment in Berlin, the youngest audiences. And a truly unique way of producing plays. We had a big evening last night where we talked about that kind of new way of producing text in collectives, giving actors real agency. They are part of a creation. And they're enormously successful. As they said last night, they have about 40 plays in repertoire they can play at any time. And at the evening, they change the set and they rehearse to the day. And the evening shows they have created out there. They have eight or nine weeks to create it, to produce it. And the Gorky has become a little nameless stamp. And I think we are really, really honored. It's the first time they come, I think, to the US. The first time all these plays get right here in the US or in the Americas. And we translated half of them. The other two of them, I think, were already there. So it was a very big effort of many people. And I would really like to thank the Gorky Theater. Christopher, who did so much work, who came here. He was here last night. But also Anche Uegel, who was a co-curator of Buass Anche, over there. And also Michael Ileida, who helped to make this festival happen. So it is a very, very, very big honor to do this. And thank you all for coming. It's the first day. And tonight, we're going to hear a play from Yael Ronan, who was actually here two years ago with a Play Common Ground, which was a fantastic work. I thought the idea, if you look up what she did. And this will be played, it will be about 40, 50 minutes. It will be followed by a discussion with a Dimitri, who is one of the great actors, and one of very prominent Berlin actor, actually, from the Gorky and filmmaker who is here. And with us, when we talk about this work, Yael could not come because of her work. And really, I hope you all will find time, and you will then to go and see the work of the Gorky. Afterwards, we will go around the corner for a little reception in the archive bar, if you have time. And if you want to join us, it's on 36 between Phipps and Madison on the south side, just in the middle of the archive. And now it's time to take out your cell phones and just make sure it's off. I'll do the very same. We also would like to thank Hull Around. We are live streaming this event. And we are very happy about that collaboration. Each of these plays can be seen later on. So thank you all for coming. And now, a walk on the dark side by Yael Ronan. I'll happily start at the beginning. In the beginning was the singularity. And around 13.8 billion years ago, it exploded. And within one plank second, so 10 to the power negative 43, so 0.0004020 and then 1, it created space and time. When the universe was 100 quintillions of a second old, so 10 to the power of negative 32, hyperinflation began. And the universe grew by a factor of 10 to the power of 26. To visualize that, in a billionth of a trillionth of a second, a meter grew to the size of 1,000 galaxies. The inflation stopped again. And within one second, and for the next 300,000 years, everything was actually everything. Every particle of our young universe was connected to every other particle. And it perfected absolutely a harmonious state of highly concentrated energy. This then cooled down and the quartz started to interact with each other and bonded to form atoms. Atoms formed molecules which formed gas clouds, which formed stars, which began the process of nuclear fusion, burned out, exploded. And the resulting stardust fused to form planets. But the more matter concentrated in the expanding universe, the more empty space was formed between it. And surprisingly, completely empty space has its own constant energy, which is extremely tiny. Einstein found it when he saw that his equations were somehow wrong. And so he introduced the cosmological constant for this constant space energy in his theory of relativity. And that's 0.0000126 zeros and then only a one, unimaginably small. But the more empty space there is, the more big. No one is listening to you. I can't put it any more simply. Do you know that feeling? When people tell you about something they're totally enthusiastic about, you're saying you know a lot about. I know a lot when we do pure research. Yeah, sure. They talk and talk and talk and you listen. But at some point you realize you're not following. You're standing there and you have no idea what you're talking about. Let's do it with a show of hands. How many of you, like who here stopped listening to what he was saying? Don't be shy. Yeah, feel free. Raise your hands. It's totally fine. Stand up for your ignorance. I know it takes a bit of effort to admit when you don't get something, but that's OK. I'm a scientist. I'm a quantum physicist. So I know both sides of these situations. And in conversations that fail like this, I've noticed one thing really interesting, that you somehow feel guilty. But if you really think about it properly, it should be exactly the other way around. Because you can't do anything about it. There's no way you can do anything to understand better. But the other person can do something. They can find a better explanation for what they're explaining. I work on science communication a lot. It's a lot of fun for me explaining science to other people. And it's also a lot of fun helping other scientists, like when we're over here, to make themselves understood and explain their totally fascinating research to other people. It's actually really important. Because science work is publicly funded. And so taxpayers should understand what their money is, what's happening with their money. That's why I make these YouTube videos and write science books for kids from 7 to 11. And I have my laptop. Yes. Taxpayers love you. Fine. So maybe I rushed a bit too far ahead. And I obviously overtaxed most people here intellectually. Maybe I'm better off starting at the end. We live in dark times. Nice. I spend my life working for the dark side, which makes up 95% of the universe. Very good. So allow me to familiarize you with the most promising theories of the dark side of our universe. I'll keep it simple. We are dealing with two dark entities. Let's call them the Dark Brothers. OK. The Dark Brothers. There's Dark Matter. That's you. Dark Matter. And his evil, restless brother, Dark Energy. I'll play him. And these two Dark Brothers are fighting a cosmic battle of epic proportions. Dark Matter's gravity wants to pull everything together. It's not actually gravity, but a completely different force field. Gravity is actually too weak to hold galaxies together. And without the force field of dark matter, it starts to just fly away. Dark Matter is strange. It's very low-weight. He doesn't interact with anything else. He just doesn't like doing things with other particles in the standard electromagnetic spectrum. He's all mysterious. But really, he just makes a big deal of himself. We can't even prove he exists. We strongly assume that he exists. And for years, we look for evidence of this introverted, mysterious, dense brother who does a lot to bring things together and keep them intact and organized. And his wild, energetic brother, Dark Energy, keeps messing up this whole boring order. And because of him, the expansion of the universe accelerates faster and faster and faster every day. To understand Dark Energy, we need to understand that large spaces in our universe are completely empty. But Dark Energy is very successful. So weak force, but very succulent. You can imagine Dark Energy as a king, as a conqueror, as a god of emptiness. His motivation, his vision, his aim is to fill the whole universe with himself. Because of ingratiating egoists like him, we now live in dark times. And it wasn't always like this. At the start of our universe, everything was once perfect. There was only one harmonious, creative, dense force. The more this force concentrated and grew, the more empty space it created.  Everything he did was only based on my work. And of course, vacuousness is super successful in an increasingly vacuous universe and it spreads exponentially with its sexy energy so that nothing, that any meaning anymore, and we'll assume they've been a completely dark universe growing into infinity in which nothing of real significance can ever be created again. And the worst thing is, he was born because of a mistake that he Einstein made. His strength is a virtual bubble, but because at some point we notice the universe was getting emptier, people totally fell in love with this mistake because he can plant a lot of things around his vacuous YouTube channel. However, migrating this is solid as steel and proven. Since my research into the echo of the oldest start of the visible universe actually proved dark matter exists, which we can hear. You wanna know what it sounds like? I will get a Nobel Prize for it. I will get a Nobel Prize. You're my girlfriend. And I'm picking me up from the hospital, in your car. From the hospital? Yes. Okay, fine. And that's my car. That's your car. But we'll try to carry this. Whatever you want. Jaguar XGTOTS 2? You can't afford it, but you can have a Honda if you like. Then they have a Honda and we have a Tesla. We can afford it. We've only had it for two months and it still has that new car smell. But I'll drive. You can drive. I can drive, I just choose not to. Whatever. We're going on vacation. Just a weekend, I'm very busy, but we can go away for the weekend to celebrate my prize. To this free ball. Free ball? You wanted something close by. It was the only thing I could get at such short notice. If you have a problem with that, I'll cancel it. I didn't say I have a problem.  I don't have a problem. I am very happy to go for a weekend in this free ball. And we're joining you. Family vacation. It's only a weekend. If it were a family holiday, I never would have invited her. First of all, she's my girlfriend.  It's a surprise. I love surprises. But I can't go on vacation like this. This isn't leisure where I need to change. I didn't know I was coming either. I didn't even pack. Why do something fancy? Can you please help me? I don't know what to wear. Did the nurse give you my baskets? Oh, those were baskets. Yeah, I wondered what those were. I need you some baskets. Wow. Thank you. Yeah, well, they're not just for you, but you can have one. Or a cube if you want. I didn't know you could make baskets. It's not complicated. I can show you if you want. But it's not very interesting. It's just something to keep us busy. So first you have to really concentrate. Then you don't have to think about it. Then it gets more and more automatic, but then all the thoughts come back. Crocheting is better. You have to keep counting the stitches. What stitches? In crochet. Thank you. I feel good. You have a tan. I was away. On vacation? No, no, I was on tour with my TED talk. So we're studying? That's the truth. I won't be angry if you went on vacation while I'm with the others. I wasn't on holiday. I was working. And anyway, I thought maybe it'd be good for me to get away. They told me it would be better if I didn't visit you. Better for whom? Better for you. That's what they said? Yes, it was better for me. I made a lot of good friends. There were a lot of people saying goodbye. Yes, I had to give so many good-bye kisses. That big guy with the beard looked like a really good friend. Oh yeah, he was my basket-making partner. He wove from here and I wove from there. And with the big baskets, we wove until we came together. We got quite close. And that skinny guy who among you was he in basket-leaving too? No, that was my intern. He studied me too. I did you? Yeah. There was this whole group of students. They were studying me. I'm interested in you. In what way did they find you interesting? In general. I'm a very interesting case. Yeah, I know. How many interns were studying you? Four. And how does it work today? Do they all study you at once? Or one, many other, or individually? That blonde guy you kissed by the door, was he an intern too? No, he was my doctor. Looks like you got on well. Yeah. Really intimate. Probably examined you too. Yeah, he mainly examined me. He was my doctor. He really understood me. Sure, I mean, that is his job. He probably talked a lot. He probably told him a lot. He probably knows a lot about you. So these examinations, they're not just verbal. They're physical too. Yes, physical. What kind of physical treatment? Listen to my chest. Stimulated my reflexes, my reactions. Found my triggers and stimulation points. Tensed my muscles. And relaxed, tense, relaxed. And reached the pain. Should I stop for a moment? Should we stop the car? Yes, but not here. Drive off the road and sat next to the tree. I'm the hittite room, you're the truck driver.  How do I kill you? It doesn't matter.  OK, but you have to leave me lying there and run away. It doesn't happen in the car? Of course not.  Preferably under the tree. Which tree? It doesn't matter. But can we just leave out the running bit? I have this corn in it, so. OK, we'll go slow, anything else? No biting, no kicking in the balls, and don't write my t-shirt, it's new. OK, what are you doing, Mr. Truck Driver? What does it look like I'm doing? Let me out! I know. It doesn't look like that. You want to drive? I have nothing against not driving. I don't want to drive. Well then, you please close the window, I'm cold. I need air, I can't think. Then get some, think, and close the window. I'm cold. Is it going to be like this the whole time? Because if it is, I prefer to go home, I'm not in the mood for this party, if you're going to be like this all weekend. I won't be, I just need a little bit of time to calm down, and then I'll be fine. Why do you have to calm down? You got what you wanted, he's not here, we're going without him the way you wanted, so why are you the one who needs to calm down? Because I expect you to back me up in situations like these. Don't start playing good cop now, making me the bad cop. So I have to agree with you automatically, even when you're wrong, so you don't look like the bad cop in front of our son. Oh, I didn't say, you're not allowed to have your own opinion. You did, that's exactly what you said. He cut open the neighbor's cat. He slaughtered an animal, that should bother you. Didn't slaughter it, he was operating on it, that's what he said. The cat is dead, he killed the cat. He opened up a cat to see what's inside, as a causal result the cat died. But he didn't cut it open with the intention of killing it, there's a big difference in my opinion. So it's okay, maybe give him a reward, instead of punishing him. Do you have any idea how many frogs my brother and I cut open as kids? That's not the same. Why, because once a cat and the other two were frogs, that's racist. You cut open the neighbor's cat, not the neighbor. I see it all as a sign of healthy curiosity, a curious child on the way to becoming a great doctor or scientist. Or a psychopath. What if he becomes one of these American kids who goes to his American school with an American machine gun and kills his American friends and American parents? How can he become an American kid?  I don't even know where to start disagreeing with you.  Do you? No, but if he doesn't understand what he did wrong, then maybe something's wrong and we're doing something wrong. You know what's really wrong? When something's wrong, when I tell him he can't come on holiday as punishment and you contradict me. I don't see the link between what he did and not bringing him to a family occasion where my prize is being celebrated. Is it about punishing him or me? So we should just pretend nothing happened and let him come so you can celebrate your prize.  I never asked to celebrate. This whole weekend was your idea. I don't even see the point to go away to meet my brother. Can you please slow down?  You're only allowed to go 100 here.  When we're back, I want us to talk about the boarding school. I don't see the point in talking to you about the boarding school. I don't see the point in talking to you in general. Thanks, let's not talk. Great idea. You know what? You should get a prize for that. Hi. Hi. I just wanted to say we're on our way. I had to take a little detour to pick up a surprise. Oh, that's sweet. I love surprises. Yes, it's very sweet. Say hi. Hi, she was in the hospital. I was released today. Congratulations. Oh, I picked her up and thought I'd just take her along. That's great. Yes, great. So see you soon. Yes, see you soon. Did you know anything about that? I had no idea. And she, I don't know, is she okay now? I don't know. But should we call somebody to ask? Ask what? And who? Maybe she needs someone to watch her. Maybe she needs to be under observation. Maybe we need to make things safe. Make things safe? I mean, illuminate glass. Have you even made glass? Maybe you need a sandwich with avocado so it goes down easier. Should we stop the bioplastic cups? I don't know.  Well, it's probably double glazing. I don't think it's easy to break those. Well, take care of your glasses so that she won't eat them. Hello? Hello? Hello, it's me, David. Hi. Hey. I just wanted to say I'm already here. I was looking forward to seeing you all. Oh, you're in Berlin? No, I'm here in the Scrivall. My battery is nearly dead. I'll see you soon. Bye. Did you invite David? I haven't talked to him since the funeral. Then who invited him? Maybe my brother. He loves surprises. And maybe we should just cancel the whole thing. No. We decided to have fun, and it will be fun. We decided to celebrate, and we will celebrate, because you deserve it. Yeah, that's true. So basically, my team and I from Arizona Tech are trying to listen to radio waves. It's very hard with all the cosmic background, radiation, as if you were standing in a hurricane trying to hear our flies waning to beat. And then we find these first-generation stars, 78 megahertz. Are you allowed to drink alcohol? I'm not pregnant. Now I'll explain to you why it really did interact with dark matter. That's what the prize was for anyway. I developed a theory about dark matter, which makes up 80% of the matter in the universe, but is invisible. Let's imagine it's like my subconscious. And I predicted it must be extremely cold, because it doesn't form any bonds with other matter. But its coldness is infectious. And if we find the oldest stars in the universe, when it was still extremely hot, these signals would have to be weaker because they were being held back by the massive cold. A few months ago, astronomers picked up radio waves that are 13.5 billion years old, and they are weaker than everyone expected. And that proves my theory and will now make me really famous. So, pretty funky stuff. Cheers. Yeah, looks like they might buy us. Who wants to buy you? Cheers. We want to do a Lehyne. We're in the middle of a conversation. Yes, but we want to do a Lehyne. Everybody's ready. Would be an exit for infostructure, but it's not that much of an exit. It's the best option at the moment. Many, many thanks for being here with him. Emmanuel, his prize. We're so grateful. Emmanuel, do you want to say a few words? Yes. So, as Marty already said, thanks for being here for celebrating this revolutionary achievement with me, which has catapulted me onto the physicist Mount Olympus. I'm happy to see every one of you.  I only wish my son was here, but he's not. Yes. He wanted to have a sleepover with his friends. It was really important to him. So my son's not here. Cheers. Cheers. That was it? Yes. Then I would like to say something. We have a lot to celebrate. We can be so thankful. First, we are alive and healthy. And it seems that we all want to stay alive. We all made it. We're all here. Except for death. He's not here. He's dead. No, he's dead. And my son's not here either. But he's still alive? Of course. He's only having a sleepover with his friends. Cheers. I would like to take the opportunity to say something. Actually, I would like to say something, too. We are so happy. We missed you so much. I'd like to take the opportunity to say a few words about that, if I may. I'm sure Emmanuel Beck, he can see you, wherever he is right now, and that he's very proud of you. Whenever we saw each other in the last year, we talked about you a lot. And no matter how lonely and sick he was in the end, he always said, I don't need Emmanuel at my side. I'm happier that my son is doing something great for humanity. He can't and doesn't want to do anything for me anymore. I wish he could see it was right. I know it hasn't always been easy between us, between us three-day restrictions, things that didn't run smoothly, that weren't easy. Big challenges. We didn't talk for years. But I'd like you to know there are no half brothers from me. You're my brothers. You're the only fan I have in this world. And I forgive you. I'm sorry that I've left right after the funeral that I abandoned you. But I followed you from afar. I saw what you achieved. I saw your head talk, two million hits. Wow, you must have been really annoyed about Dad's car. I really want you to know. I had no idea you wanted to give it to me. I would never be interested in plastic. It's OK, it's water. And I want you to have it. Here's the key. Forget it, forget this. I'm serious. I don't want it. I know what the car means to you. I want you to have it and know you'll take better care of it. Thanks. He's really happy about that. Don't eat that. Money. I also wanted to toast to you and to your PhD that you're still working on it after all these years. I assume there will be more than one doctor in the house. I'm a professor. Doctor and professor.  Seriously. One look at more and you know he's different from other kids. Somehow special, just like his dad. I can't tell you how happy it made me when I read about the prize. You didn't have a easy year. You went through a few things. Apart from dad, a few other things got out of control. It seems everything's going well for you now, though. And Margaret, that's your name, right? I've heard so much about you. I think we meant briefly at the funeral. I was not the funeral. I was in the Naha. To the side of that. Didn't work, though. To life and love. Cheers. Lie.  Why did he even invite them? What's that about with the car? Nothing.  He wears sunglasses inside. Who does he think he is? Stevie Wonder?  Dad this. Dad said, dad was so proud of you. Dad, dad, dad. I didn't know that they were so close. No, they didn't see each other for 18 years. He was 12 the last time you saw him. When my father got sick, probably some defect in his brain burned out his synapses, and then he started with it. You didn't give him 400 grand in the last two years.  But now we have the car.  Why didn't he have contact for 18 years? Forget it, it is complicated. I like complicated. Oh, right, your dad had an affair, right? David, it's between you and him and you. Affair, affair, it wasn't an affair. Probably a one night stand when he was drunk with some Israelis for grand and weight. She decided to keep the baby, and he had this idea of doing the right thing and support her financially.  My mother knew about it. But instead of splitting up like a normal couple, they made me. Thanks. We always knew we had a half brother somewhere in Israel. But I think my father had no contact with David's mother for a part time of money. She got religious, married, and ultra orthodox Jew, and had like 10 kids with him. 10? Yeah, yeah, that's what they do there. I don't know how much you know about ultra orthodox Jews. Nothing, tell me. Well, whatever, they belong to this special movement. Something between the Amish and the Jewish version of the Taliban. To be honest, I don't know the exact history of David's family. I only know they were very poor and very strict. But I don't know if there was violence or abuse. I don't know. Anyway, David ran away when he was 12.  And it seemed like there was no way back into that community once you've left the religion, for then you're dead. So somehow, when he managed it, he contacted my father. And my father went to Israel and brought him home. Then he came back with this creature, this alien who only spoke Yiddish as if he came from another planet. Just imagine. He had never seen a TV before in his life. He talked to it. He sat there the whole time like this. That's the way he sat in front of the TV. He couldn't deal with girls and women at all. He didn't know how to behave around them. He was afraid to talk to our mother because he was never allowed to be alone with women. He wasn't even allowed to look at them. He just couldn't deal with anything. He was afraid to talk to our mother or even to look at her. He couldn't handle anything really. As if someone had grown up in the forest, raised by wolves. And we had to share a room with them. I was eight. Emmanuel was 14. Three boys in one room, you can imagine what went on. He thought he'd be struck by lightning if someone masturbated near him. And Emmanuel masturbated every night before he went to sleep. And before David went to sleep, he just banged his head on the wall until it bled. I remember I woke up and saw the blood stains on the wall. To this day, I don't know what my father was thinking because this boy obviously had problems. We were kids. We were scared of him and we were disgusted by him. And we got on his nerves the way kids do, but my father just forced us to play with him. So we played with him. Truth or dare, except with us there was no truth, only dare. And we decided what, and we made him do stuff. And then for fun, I said it totally as a joke. I said, jump out the window. And he jumped out the window, second floor. We thought he was dead. We were kids. We panicked. We didn't know what to do. We didn't say anything. We just hoped somebody would find him and call the ambulance. And that was the last time we saw him. We never visited the hospital. I don't even know if my father did. We were sure he was dead and that nobody wanted to tell us. And after a month, my father told us that he was released from hospital and went back to Israel. But we thought he was lying. And we were scared to ask because I was scared I would go to jail. That's all you have to say? No idea. What do you think? Where are you going? I'm going to the balcony for a smoke. I thought you quit. I started again. Everyone smoked in the hospital. And I'm not pregnant anymore. What's the problem? Can I join you? I'm going to the balcony for a smoke, not to jump. I'm already done? That wasn't even 10 minutes. It took you longer to change your clothes. I had enough. I want to leave. Where? Home. I didn't want us to sneak out from your own party. It's a wonderful idea and an enjoyable evening, but I want to go home now. That would be funny. I'm not joking. I know. And that is what is so funny. I want to leave and I can't drive. Can you just drive me? Drive you're typing. Could you please just drive me home? You can come back if you want. I don't mind. Some rescue remedy? What? A homeopathic remedy against panic attacks. I'm not having a panic attack. Do they help? Who? Of course not. They're homeopathic. Open your mouth. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't help either. Of course not. They're homeopathic. Since when are you taking drops against panic attacks? Since I've been having panic attacks. Since when do you have panic attacks? Since I stopped taking the antidepressants. You were on antidepressants? Sure. Why? Because I'm depressed. Why are you depressed? I don't know. Maybe because I'm so lonely. It looks good. Don't you think? Who? I'm who? It's Magda. They both look good. They're happy and love. They're over it. They're closer together. Don't you think? I don't know. It's not easy for a couple to lose a child. Being pregnant in the ninth week isn't a baby. I think it's not even an embryo. It was this small. They should drive in. You insane? You should be happy he got out of it. He's not even 25. He has his whole promising life ahead of him.  She ate glass. You said it yourself.  Embryo. Personally, I doubt that she was really pregnant. Why would she lie about being pregnant? Who knows? Why do people lie? That's a good question. Why do people lie? No idea. Why? I don't know. Tell me. Why? Maybe they have something to hide. If you want to ask me something, ask. But stop wasting my time. What did he mean that you had a tough year, that things got out of control? David, no idea what he wanted to say. That's David.  I love him, but with his history, it's a miracle that he halfway functions as a normal person and all. He told me he sold this company to Google. So that's what he told you. And you believe it?  There is no company. 25 is not so early. We just started to wait. Don't you wish sometimes we had another child? What's wrong with you today? You want to send the child we already have to boarding school so you can write your PhD, so please. But if Moritz dies, at least it's just not the two of us. Why would Moritz die?  It happens. Maybe a cat will cut him open because it wants to see what's inside. It's sick. Did I say something wrong? No. So what happened? Nothing. I'm fine. Did you bring the ropes? I don't know. I don't know. You just got out of the hospital. I thought maybe it was inappropriate. I don't have the connection. You should have brought them. Sorry. I saw a hammock outside. I could use the ropes from that. Forget it. Okay. Why didn't you come visit me? I was there. What? I told you I was there. Why? You weren't there.   You know that isn't true. You asked me not to come. I did not ask you nothing. I was there and you didn't want to talk to me. You didn't want to tell me what happened.  The doctor said that, not me. And you believed them. You abandoned me.  You didn't even think of me. How can you say that? I thought of nothing but you. I was worried about you. I nearly lost my mind. And why did you abandon me? Why did you abandon me? Why did you abandon me? I didn't abandon you. I'm here. You abandoned me. You don't love me anymore, right? I love you. How can you say that? How can you say that I don't love you? I love you so much. I want... I want to marry you. Let's get married. Let's make a baby. I quit smoking so I can't sleep. Connected, but it sounds good. I quit smoking. I'm also talking. I'm going to make myself a tea. Do you want one? Maybe later. But you can stick with me a bit if you want. I wanted to tell you how I appreciate what you did for him. For Papa. How you took care of him. I left him a lot. We had a special connection. We had good talks. He's a very special man. He was. Yeah. It was hard to see how that disease changed him. Last time I talked to him, he begged me to get sleeping pills so we could... Yes. I can understand it. Being helpless.   Even though... It's okay. I didn't mean that. He felt guilty that he was a burden. Just when you were trying to get your doctor in. I wanted that. He was grateful. I'm going to go make this. Wait. Tennis tomorrow?  I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Did I break your glasses? That's fine. I'm so sorry. There's nothing to see anyway. You're in really great shape. I think it's so good that you've been practicing secretly. I've been working. You can see that. You look fantastic. And healthy. I'm really happy that you're taking such good care of yourself. Yeah. Of course.  I think it's great. You understood that you need to look after yourself. Take time for yourself. Move your career forward. That's where you did with that TED Talk, dude. Really cool. Cambridge, Princeton, Yale, Berkeley. Crazy. I never get divided into those things. I thought you hated my TED Talks. You're doing the same. I'm sorry if you thought that. No. Maybe I shouldn't have said that you oversimplified facts. But that's what's brilliant about it. It's simply brilliant. You're brilliant. And I mean that. The amazing thing is that you don't even have to go too much effort to achieve that. And that's really talented. That's what it is. I hope you know that if you put time and energy into it, then the sky's the limit for you. Ah, come on. Stop. I mean it. Seriously. I'm going to say something now. I'll never say it again. So enjoy the moment. You ready? Mm-hmm. You're the genius. And I'm so incredibly proud of you. Look, which you've already achieved in your career in only three months. Sure. I mean, she was in the hospital. You were more focused than usual. But just imagine. Yeah. No, forget it. Please don't get me wrong. She's a very special woman. You two have a passionate relationship. She has serious medical problems. And you just have to ask yourself if you're really able to provide the help she needs. You have to be honest with yourself and her. Will you really be able to be there for her if it happens again? Because it will happen. I love her. That's great. Love is nice. But you have to think. I'm going to marry her. You're going to what? I want to marry her. I want us to have another baby. Did you decide this or her? Well, it's not supposed to be. Was it your idea of hers to get married? I asked her. Voluntarily, she didn't put any pressure on you. What do you want? Like, how are you right now?  You have every reason to be angry. Do you feel that she went behind your back and manipulated you? How are you? How do you think I am? Shit. Two months ago, the woman I love tried to kill herself. And I don't even know why. And she won't tell me. It's none of my business. Because, of course, I'm angry.  So, just like that. So, if this is what you want to hear, yes, I hate her for what she did. Anything to anyone? No one will judge you if you leave.  Why would I invite David? Then who invited him? Not me. Not me. Not me. Could you put some clothes on my back? Good. Good. Do you want some too? On my shoulders. Shoulders. Shoulders. Shoulders. I have some too. Do you want to see mine? Is this the part where you pulled down your underwear? So, I was 12, pulled a piece of glass. And then that one when I was 12, too. This one when I was 13 was razor blade. That's a cigarette burn. Cigarette. Yeah. How deep? You know, I don't know. The cutting thing. The only thing that worked for me was burn. 14, surface, surface, surface, 15. Nice work. Down to the fat, down to the fat, down to the fat. This one was down to the bone. It was clean through the fat. 14, 14, 15.  I ended up in the hospital. Too deep? In a vein. Wouldn't stop bleeding. Funny story, actually. I like funny stories, don't I? Okay. So, I did it in the school toilets with the razor blade. I usually stopped the blood of the toilet paper, but this time it wouldn't stop. So, I bandaged my leg with my shirt. Still wouldn't stop. I pressed my sweater on it. My trousers. It wouldn't stop. Everything is soaked in blood. So, I'm sitting on the toilet in my underwear until everything is just soaked in blood. Everything. My clothes, my skin, the floor, everything. The whole time, I just had this one panicky thought in my head.  So, I try to go into the other toilet in my underwear to get some more toilet paper. I open the door. And right then, a girl comes forward. She's standing there staring at me. This naked thing. And you know what I said to her? What? I said, and she said, fine. And then she got sick. Oh my God.    You follow?  I mean, myself. But I was fading away that everything fades away, that nothing will exist anymore, nothing. Just one big black hole. And I can't even describe it in words. Control, splitting up of this. Or drowning in Virginia Woolf. A girl from the hospital, Nancy, my true love, she tried that way. She went to Denmark, to the Wadden Sea, went into the ocean at low tide, and waited for her to come in, to the Japanese tourists. Then she swallowed razor blades in the hospital, survived. Pill overdosed, survived. Swallowed glass. Maybe a self-harm message. She poured hot oil on her chest at lunch. She was totally out of control.  No, seriously, what can you do with a kid like that? They put Nancy, my true love, in time out. Solitary confinement.  When you lie there, people just stare at you through the window from the corridor, like at a zoo. At some point, time and space just stop existing. And you start to leave your body. You see your body from above. Lying there is so vulnerable. 21 days? But what I wanted to say, too, jumped out of bed in time out and banged their head on the wall in both feet.  Artificial commas? Yeah, then I stopped cutting myself and I tried to fit in. But none of my head came to you about this. I mean, people are not supposed to talk about this. It scares them. Not me. I was in a home for crazy kids, but I was three. Three? What was it like? Once I was in there, I would never come out. Here I am. Happy to meet another zooistic kid. We can smell each other. Oh, he was there once. That was all that I wanted. I meant imagine. You have every reason to be angry with his baby. Was that your place? Did he tell you that? No, he never talked about it. How do you? I know. The red ones aren't that sweet, but the red ones are delicious. Magna? I'll have some. No, I like standing. Where are you going? Swimming. Thank you for yesterday's conversation. Yeah, pleasure. About the thing with the... Don't worry. I'm not going to say anything. About the pills. What? The pills you gave Papa. Papallus?  I don't get it. Okay. I just want you to know that I'm on your side.  It was you. I'm going to take care of you. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay. What? Really at her house the day she... Yes. Oh, you know. Hi. Great. We didn't go swimming, we talked. It was very interesting. Very interesting. Really? Who said you wanted to go swimming? The water was too cold. Where is Magna? Any water?  Yes. Are you insane? The science is looking everywhere for you. I'm here. There you are. There's a lunar eclipse tonight. Let's watch it together, right? Yes, I'll get my telescope. Oh, that's not necessary. I have mine with me too. I love moon. Besides the two dark brothers, there's another even darker entity to be completely honest. We know nothing about it. We don't even know how much we don't know. We know that Papa Einstein invented them and his theory was if a supermassive object is forced into a tiny radius of movement eventually it will create a rupture in the space-time. When a star has no more energy it collapses in on itself and contracts back to a tiny point and feeds on the energy of other things. It's so dense and so strong that not even light can escape its power from a black hole. We don't know who or what this is but we can see its destructive effects on others. Whole star systems can revolve around black holes without knowing who's controlling them until every particle is torn apart.  It only rips you apart and eats you up when you're close to it. It feeds on information and stores it inside itself.  Inside it there's no difference between the past, the present, and the future. It's completely deranged. When we start thinking about what goes on inside it we find results that are so strange, so confused, so unfathomable, so ridiculous that they leave the laws of logic out of certain. What do you want? Strange mount. Yeah, I thought so too. It's a huge advantage that it doesn't shake much. The focus around them is smooth as butter. 12 inch, 24 millimeter illumination parabolic primary mirror. 80% 94 1-10 magnification, 1-4 inch reduction. A bit short don't you think? Yeah, I wanted one with a short focal length so we're looking at deep sky objects. And you really brought this massive thing. I don't want you to get used to it because mostly I look at the weak galaxies and the big tails of the hydrogen clouds. You know, all about that. I don't know how much you got into that. It's 42,900 objects. We can control them all with the touch of a button. So who wants to go first?   Really? I thought you'd be most thankful for it. You wanted me to end with this, didn't you? No, I didn't. That was definitely not what I wanted. It should work. This is definitely not the reason to talk about it. David knows. What? I'll take another look. He asked why you were in my place that day. It was your baby or if I didn't know who it was. What did you say? Nothing. Did you tell him that? Of course not. What else did he say? That I deserve to be loved and respected. I think he's right. I want to tell him the truth. Now that he wants to marry me, I don't want to keep any secrets from him anymore.  You won't say anything, not from the science, not anyone else either. No one will believe you anyway.  Everyone knows it was irresponsible to reduce you after three months.  Okay then. Do it. Try. Yours. I'm going to my thigh. For the reason she wanted to kill herself. Did you get that nonsense from David?  Don't you know that he...  Don't you ever eat out of me.    I don't...  And there is no moon. I just want to know that it is over. And that they will never happen again. And that you had nothing to do with her suicide. The mosquitoes are eating me alive out here. I'm going to go back to my room. They're eating you because you're so sweet. Can I have a look? Oh yeah, please. What am I supposed to do? Just look. How amazing. Just amazing. That's amazing. Thank you. If you weren't swaying around so much you could see the moon too. That's amazing, really. I'm sorry if I hurt you yesterday. I didn't mean to. It's no big deal. I really didn't. I don't want you to be angry with me. You're both really important to me. I wish we were closer. Sometimes I have the feeling that you're still kind of angry. I'm not angry. I'm not angry either. Then no one's angry. That's good. I mean I always admire the way you two are. How you stick together no matter what happens. I wish we were like that too. Us three. Yeah. You were always able to let everything go. Forgive each other. Stay so close. How you got over the whole thing with Matthew. What thing? That he's fucking. What do you want, you freak?    What do you want?  Ah! My watch! Jesus, my eye! You broke my watch. I didn't mean to. It was the watch. The glass is broken. I didn't mean to. It was the watch.  He broke it with his face. What happened? Nothing.  What? What? Why what didn't bother me? She was visiting her parents. She was visiting her parents. Exactly. And he had to go to conferences. They were always traveling. I'll wait for you at the petrol station. You're the truck driver and I'm the hitchhiker.   We struggle. I run away. You catch me.  Who thought you were something special? Was it David? Was it really surprise you? You know your brother. You know about his other. That he would leave her alone because you're his brother? You really shouldn't be so surprised about who he is. You know him better than me. It doesn't matter. It's over now. It doesn't need to bother you anymore. So, as I said earlier, we couldn't join her. We had Dimitri with us who was part of the cast and who developed the play. And Sarah, who directed. So, another round of applause for her what she put together in a day. Let me make sure it's on. Yeah. As we said this afternoon, how does it feel like seeing that play right in New York by actors here? It's fun. It's really fun. It's interesting to hear it in English. It has a different touch than in German. It kind of works like a well-made play, I guess. Or somehow like that. We had something different in mind when we did it but we then decided to make it really structurally a well-made play when we did and so it was interesting to hear it. I think it worked and not too much was lost in the translation which is very interesting and nice to see. So tell us a bit how did this play start? What was the origin of it? Normally when we work with Ronan we start out with one topic and the topic we started with was problems and we wanted to call the play problems and then we normally sit around problems. Later we changed it to dark side because the theater said problems is not a good title for a play.  So then it was this idea of call it dark side and what we then do is most of the cast already knew and so we know a lot about each other from different plays. And so for the first weeks we started out with a process of what energies we have in our minds and what causes problems in us. So then the first step was just so without having any play or any idea of what it will be about or anything. So we started out and for the first week I guess we were down or trying to name the voices we have in our heads who fuck us up which are patterns that constantly direct us each and every one of us and since every work with her is personal and we normally don't share anything which somebody else told I just keep talking about myself and how this part of it, so I played the part of the manual was developed. We created it, yes.  So and reacting extremely cold and extremely rational on something. And then the parts was that other actors start to re-enact certain situations that you have but they enact your voices in your head. So then they start and we try to figure out what are the most powerful voices in our heads. So we share with each other our problems so for some it was self-destruction for others it was a strong and kind of wicked sexual desire and so on and so on and so on. You sit at a table or is it in the rehearsal room? That's in the rehearsal room. So sometimes we write and then when she has an idea and say okay let's just prepare that and make an improvisation about that.  Sometimes it's some form of energy work of meditation that we do and sometimes it's some forms of ecstatic dancing and just finding out of where energies come from and so on and so on. And then the thing was that the guy who was playing Matthias, my brother, he was an acting student of mine and he was this horrifically talented guy. But he kind of looks a bit like me and everybody in the theater said and since I taught him he also acts a bit like me so we thought oh it would be nice no matter what we do if we play brothers. So we decided okay we will play brothers and then they decided okay so then the woman who was playing my wife with her I had already many plays and she had this thing which she once said in rehearsals that she's kind of sometimes scared or repulsed by me. So we thought okay it would be nice that she will be my wife then in this play. And then came the day and through this whole process we made if somebody has any kind of idea at home or comes the next morning and says well I thought about the dark side, dark side and maybe something with black holes. And then Stephen Hawking died and since I was a very very lonely child and from the very beginning I read I kind of got into theoretical astrophysics. So when the day after Stephen Hawking died he asked me can you do a speech about Stephen Hawking and what he was researching on and in general talk about and then I started talking about Stephen Hawking and about his theories on black holes and then we dug deeper and she started okay so what about dark matter and dark energy and then out of that because I talked about that we thought hey wouldn't it be fun if Emmanuel was a physicist a physicist so this whole idea was born and then we thought but since this beautiful talented actor who plays my brother didn't know anything about physics we thought well maybe he could also be a physicist but you know somebody who makes YouTube stuff and so this kind of thing was developed and then it was I think I guess about three weeks till opening night and we had no play whatsoever or anything so then we sat down and started writing this first scene which we have basically written in I don't know twenty five thirty minutes this first when they start reacting on each other and so then taking also the personal stories and experiences and ideas of the other actors those characters were developed and then while we rehearsed we kept on writing new scenes and then it's like three days until opening night and we have no finish and we're just sitting there and then say okay so what will happen okay if he knows and then yeah and this kind of process so it's you always write against the little time you have the black hole swallowed and then we just decided yeah Emmanuel deserves to be punished and so Matthias in our adaptation of this play he beats me until I'm crippled and in a wheelchair yeah so this he becomes Stephen Hawking yeah so I become Stephen Hawking yes and then this is the final punchline of my wife then and she says now you look like a real novel prize winner and this is how this whole play ends this is German it's very dark so I'm Sarah I know you have to go at eight o'clock to catch your flight out of JFK which gate is it I don't know can you keep because I don't even know to my confirmation number so we asked you to have a look at the play and you said yes so what sense did you make out of it well it's so interesting to hear that there was another ending because the ending that we had that was the end was the last thing which she's like yeah because this was like two days you have the text that was two days before opening night so there was no ending actually and also some paragraphs are changed it's really it's really last minute changing and sometimes you even start out and really even on the final day when you know in the night we'll have an opening night you still are rewriting texts or rehearsing really until the last minute until people are coming in that's amazing and sounds like such an amazing process and I I don't know I wish I had known that about the end because I mean definitely when we read it no no I mean it's so fascinating and when we read it we definitely all had the feeling of I guess that's the end of the play and so then I asked Michael to create something with this black hole this image of the black hole which is new just to have the black hole is coming for us or something because I felt like something had to happen that was very dark so I'm glad to hear that at least I could feel that yeah I'm crawling like five minutes on the ground and yelling I can't move my legs I can't move my legs do you want to do it? do you want to do it right now? you can improvise it just like fight choreo you guys can do that also if you guys want to join us also they're roommates so they can totally pull it off so so what do you think of this is this a play is it a Berlin play could that be done here what do you think of the work I really loved it we really had a lot of fun working on it I think there's something about just the matter of fact delivery of a lot of really dark material that was very satisfying that I think I don't know sometimes there can be something in American theater where we feel like we have to everything has to be very dramatic and if something dark is revealed it has to be received that way and sort of cause all this and I just really appreciated that even though different forces in the play were causing problems often those problems were received with I mean just Mania at the end being like well I don't know yep that's it yep he was fucking her I don't know bye everyone's response or the conversation between David and Magda where they're like yeah that's what it is to be human sometimes you do want to kill yourself it's awful and we all experience that why do we have to make it into such a big deal if you had one or two more days of rehearsal you might have come up we might have come up with that same ending oh shit I remember now no when we then drive home there's another ending actually because there is still a phone call with the son which was left home and he cut himself open this is the this is the final thing my god this is German theater it's so much fun the kid dies at the end and the man is crippled what did you had to wrestle with what you felt was a complication or challenging in the play for you I mean feel free to chime in guys but yeah I think we were trying to figure out what David was doing sort of where he had come from and what his role was and how he knew what he knew and whether that was I think we sort of came to that that was both a literal knowing like that he could have somehow gotten a hold of someone's phone with his google spy company that was where we all went with it pretty much what what we had but that it was also something sort of metaphysical that he just like sucked in information so it's hard to sort of get that in a reading but that's what we were we had some conversations about that but I mean it feels after reading we had to read it a few times and we were like I think this is what's going on it was actually at one point a few days before opening night there was still that he explains how he got this information but then we felt now it gets a bit too well made playish Americans so somebody also you know you have to explain everything so we stayed with the notion of that it should have something metaphysical that you can you can guess it but it's still unclear and in the dark and also with the David character there was this idea because the demon of the actor was the revenge demon that he has really harsh revenge fantasies of and he wanted so we thought about this guy who comes who comes to take revenge I think we also yeah there felt like there was some layer of almost that he was a ghost because they hadn't known whether he was alive or not that for so long that they had been like maybe he is dead that there was sort of this layer of yeah he's a black hole he's a person who works for Google spyware and he's maybe not he's dead I don't know you know they can be all true I think yeah but I also want to point out about the way the Gorky on display how the company works one could argue of course downtown companies have done that for a long time which is to an ensemble work sharing creating text together and doing this but it is highly unusual in a theater like a Gorky which is one of the four or five state cities theaters that this method of working is being transferred it would be the same of saying oh like a musical in New York is being created everybody can say you know the actor can say I don't want to sing that song I create my own I write my own or they change something two days before or the day of the opening it's unthinkable as unthinkable this is also for a German city or state theater it's as unthinkable as it would be for a New York director doing Daniel Fesche says I want to change the Oklahoma ending a day before the opening can't do that so I think one has to really see what the Gorky achieved in a way is to create a new way of working a new way of writing and that is actually also successful as something comes out something shines out of it more energy comes out of that theater that gets in even so you put in a lot of energy of course but something is working and I think this is what a real significant message is everybody looks for the new writing this or that but maybe it's the way of working in ensemble work and maybe it is also the idea of having different languages on stage in the parallel universes so I think this is something even you jokingly say oh we do this or that but it's a radical way of working and it's also working which I think is why it's so exciting to see that experiment going so tell us you wrote the monologues most probably than the big ones and the scenes yes so how does that work Yael says you know write it and then she you perform it and she says yes no how most of the time since so Yael doesn't speak German she understands a little bit but mostly we communicate in English but she has a bit of dyslexia so when she writes really she has five spelling mistakes in one word literally so you really have to know how to translate what she's doing because she's just writing down intuitively and so when we it depends whether we work on a scene in English or in German so most of the time if we work in German we try to do that she basically says or she brings a scene or says these and so those are you know the cornerstones of the scene or maybe she writes down a few lines and then we sit down and start to translate it to German start to make it more precise to German because of course she thinks in Hebrew then translates it to English writes it down in English and we start to take it from her English which is already condensed and then inflate it again to make a good and punchliney German sentence of it and sometimes it's also or then I start adlibbing just say whatever comes to my head in rehearsals and then she just looks to the dramaturg and says is that interesting is that funny and she says yes good then we'll keep it and then you continue doing it or also with monologues that she sometimes that she just goes by energy that she says I don't know what you said there but it feels wrong and then we just take it out because the energy doesn't feel right in there so and sometimes you really sit for two days with the dramaturg and with her on a text and start to to know we need to put that sentence here and we need to put that here and to put that here so it varies with the content you dealing with so sometimes it's really super easy or also with the scene where the two brothers talk we've actually we've written the scene like ten minutes before we started rehearsing it because it was the costume designer gave us costumes of of tennis like tennis match because he wanted us to wear tennis clothes and since everybody is respected so you need to wear those costumes that the costume designer gave to you and then we said okay so maybe we should play tennis okay then we just got tennis records and but we had no ball and then we just started started doing those those sounds and then we had a bit time left and said okay so now we need to do something okay how do we get from this point that they have a normal conversation to the point of him breaking down and saying I hate her I hate this woman and then it's just really fast sitting together in the wardrobe and and us just improvising it and two people writing the text down and then we start to edit it because because we do an improv then of ten minutes maybe you don't videotape like Kastoff does you write things down sometimes it's videotaped sometimes if it's a more physical scene sometimes it's just that the audio is taped but anyway if we do those kind of improvisations then there's two assistants who try to write it down and then we re-edit it or even while we do the scenes we try to say no maybe let's try today out to put it this and that way so it has completely different forms from sometimes that it just works out well sometimes due to improvisation and sometimes it's really really really hard work and it doesn't work out in the end you throw it out it's good that you have nine weeks to rehearse right there but let me ask the question about the drama talk you just mentioned what is the role of the drama talk how does the role in that specific way in Berlin at the Gorgia at that moment so what is the role of the drama talk what does he or she do since you have to be very very yeah the problem is and this I always find when a director who comes from a different cultural background but does something for a certain kind of scenes for example in Berlin it's sometimes important to know that some sentences or some words or something you say or do have certain connotations to people you know the codes you use and so in this case the drama talk is very very vital very important position of if we do something which is and say some German sentences which are not really translatable but she tries then to explain it to the director the drama talk worked with her for over 10 productions 15 I think now and she tries to explain to her this is why and the other way round so she knows where Ronan has her cultural background and then tries to reflect it to us and so this is very very very important and really to edit the text and to just say because if you try sometimes it's difficult as an actor even to rehearse something and then to listen to somebody else from the outside and to say no this doesn't work but if you at the same time trying to make up the text or even so you're at the same time the author the co-director and an actor which in the next scene should be completely open to the suggestion of what the director wants you get completely you're so how come it's said written by Ronan if it's an ensemble it's always Ronan and ensemble so do you get royalties no we we now try to say that we're trying to make it with the theater how we try to develop it because actually since this kind of work is so new it's really it's a big question and this is also something we try out to do some pioneering work in the theater landscape because actually this is a very very complicated matter for example does with each and every one of her play it's in a festival and it gets awards or money she shares the money with everybody also with the assistants who worked on this play but it's very very difficult with royalties because then the question is how much is a quotation and if somebody like in my position and I actually write those texts but other actors don't write the texts but the texts get written and so on and who has to be asked can we perform it can we not actually have the rights so this is a complicated feel we don't have to get into it but it's also something that arises also we had a big session here at the Siegel center with the new dramatist with the dramatist skill they are a big question that come out of that of a new work that raises completely new question which I think shows something is really happening I really would like to have the actors come over here and we started without you guys so maybe we hear your voice I hope you all agree can I I want to introduce everybody this is Paul Ketchum Mike Nicos, David Gould Hannah Mitchell and Kate Schrader yay and can I ask one question too do you so the nine week development period are people paid for that whole period for the rehearsals yes how much do you rehearse every day for it depends on sometimes we just rehearse for one hour a day sometimes it's eight nine hours but we as for me I have a fixed contract so theater pays me no matter whether I work or don't work they still pay me that's amazing and I just want to say that as to these people and to the people because that doesn't exist here and so I think when you say right it's so amazing they're making this work this way it would be like da da da da happening on Broadway that's why it doesn't happen here and that's why it can't happen here is because there's not funding for it to work in that way and it's so frustrating because I love working that way and I worked with Elevator Repair Service which is one of the closest companies that we have like that where people are devising things over a really long period of time with an ensemble and that all that work is credited to it's by Elevator Repair Service but that's it's almost impossible to make that happen here anyway but this is since it's a state theater or city theater so the city subsidizes the whole work so about 80-90% of the theater is subsidized by the state so just the last 10% are actually through ticket sales but one can also argue they subsidize it even if no ensemble member is included in creating the work here then it's just the director of the drama so it's not that they can rehearse longer because of this the times are similar but I would like to go to the ensemble and just ask how did it feel doing this play and also here you were like American actors you had to roll, you had to read it how does it feel to hear how they created it so maybe you hand the mic over whoever wants to say something about it I feel like this is definitely the way that I always want to work on a play yes exactly what you described and like performing the play certainly had that sense and in fact the way that you were describing the development process about how it was like on different days you were feeling different things and then you would make that scene on that particular day there are so many scenes that have that feeling especially with the manual the lectures feel so substantially different than when he's interacting with Mathias during the tennis scene it's like the tenor of the character changes completely from scene to scene which is so great because I feel like all the time when I'm an actor it's like I need to have some motivation that persists throughout the entire show that takes me all the way to the end instead of just being like a human being where from day to day I completely change the way that I interact with the world yeah I also agreed that I think Sarah maybe said it earlier that there was so much humor in the play as we started digging I think on our first read all of the darkness were very apparent but yeah I feel like the dialogue and the humor and the sort of it felt I was very struck by how natural the dialogue felt and how sort of like organic and lived in those relationships felt even though it had been translated how many ever you know when you're saying it's been translated many times and so that felt very apparent to me that you guys had actually spent a lot of time just inhabiting these roles and exploring what they were and then spontaneously trying to capture some aspect of those relationships I thought that was really cool and successful in this yeah yeah I'm seething with envy hearing a description of this process like she was saying about working with translations I think on our first read the second read in the short time we had we're like okay we can tell that we knew that there were other languages used in the production which we're setting aside for now or in English we know that there's probably something lost in the punchlines we know that like to hear you describe a process with the dramaturg and people who speak these languages people that not only speak the language but understand the connotations and the jokes the full texture of that is we rarely get a chance when we're working with translated plays to we trust the translator who is rarely in the room it's usually Paul Schmidt who did the thing and you're like well I guess you know to take the time and go back to source material because of course we're Americans we only speak English anyway just to put in also sorry to say the Gorky theater even if the plays in German they will have always subtitles for everybody they do not assume that everybody speaks or understands German it would be like saying here every play that even is in English language will have subtitles in Spanish for example and that's a significant idea I think sorry I just want to say one other thing that the idea of taking a costume design that's been like worked on independently insanely cost inefficient I mean I have worked that way with companies where it's like a shoestring budget and we we don't have a play but we have a sound design and we're going to start from there that is so just such an enriching place to begin and it's so rare so I'm hoping that as you iron out your process in Berlin and figure out who gets paid and for what and how the money works that you'll like send us the model when you're done with it because we sorely need it I mean we don't get to play like that because nobody's going to spend the money on a costume design what tennis we're not doing tennis you know that's the end of the conversation so it's anyway also for the translation I need to to add for example a few details because now that you've mentioned it and how much you trust the translator so for example the woman who was playing my wife so her part she speaks a German which is okay but since she moved from Israel to Germany about six years ago her German is very bad so when she tries to improvise it or tries to say something so you write out the line in English and what she said in the first moment we've written down so it's bad German but it's very interesting how it's structured so it gets a very natural point and of course hearing that in well written English is something completely different also for a couple where you have just the disadvantage of somebody who has the power of language above somebody else and then if she's really she gets really angry at him she switches to Hebrew and starts insulting him in Hebrew and the David character he also since he was raised by Amish Talibanish Wolves in Israel he also speaks a very very strange form of German mixed with some Dutch accent with some British accent and it's very very interesting so that there are two people who are immediately even if they just later on they start speaking Hebrew with each other but from the very beginning they have some form of mutual understanding but this is due to the fact that you don't try to flatten down and make it everything into perfect German which normally in Germany Germans love German culture so it's difficult to break this down but the possibilities that you then have all of a sudden are so huge and work on a subconscious level which isn't even really really translatable but still to hear that those scenes all of a sudden if it's written in perfect English and then to hear that it makes sense on another level but other problems emerge from that and then it was so I was really happy to hear that and to hear this text kind of works it is actually translatable not in the sense that it's just in a different language but even if it's in a different language and you have those forms of ironed out it still works and makes sense this is something really really astonishing to hear before we come to audience question a question to you how personal really is the work because you do have a brother and he works in the creative field also do you work through personal things he's a guy I know he's an actor how deep does it really go in some parts really really deep so also in this form of work we had another production which had an opening night recently and where an actor a few days before the opening night refused to play it and said this is now too personal or too close to other processes this is the first thing Yael usually says to the actors so as soon as you have to take care of yourself so as soon as you have the feeling of not being able to say something you do it or in another play which we did which was called Denial I had a monologue which was fictional but about when I come clean about my father who was molesting me sexually as a child and she wanted me to do it parts of it in Russian since I have a Russian background and also the audience knows that I'm Russian and I refused to do that and said no this is too close so this would make me feel uncomfortable really the notion that my father who might come to see this play so you always try to touch those lines of reality but sometimes you really need to take care of not crossing this line and sometimes Yael can do it sometimes you need to do it with your fellow colleagues who try to work on that with you just to say that sometimes you just open up the portal to your demons which is completely not healthy because as much and it's great to be in a cast and people who are willing to share deep personal secrets personal scars horrific things they lived through or they made other people live through but at some points you really need to be careful that it doesn't cross this line and sometimes it even does with some people you need to be careful or you didn't see it coming and they just realize it later on or you really feel like shit while doing this production it really bothers you or opens something up and people you need then to help with the therapist or something like that and so sometimes the work is really really personal sometimes you play with the notion that most of the time it's like with authors even though they wouldn't perform in their own stuff but of course you write what you know and yes I have a brother who is highly successful and we work together so he's a filmmaker and won a student academy award for a movie which I've written and so we constantly fight and this is a thing I know and so it's fun to write those scenes and I know it I know how to handle it and this of course then comes down to that and sometimes you also write texts which are too much to handle for the audience or also for the other colleagues which is just that you say okay thank you for sharing but we'll just put it somewhere there and then maybe someday we'll do another play again and say so now it fits and this is a very very interesting a very interesting process also to think that it's not for this one play but it can develop and even if in 10 years we'll do another play about something completely different we'll remember oh but you had this great text then about you fantasizing about raping your mother would you be so kind to bring that to the stage and then we'll do a scene because it's German theater so in a way Yell is like the doctor in the play who kind of tense and relax looks at the tongue and then what are the thresholds of pain and in the nut house of life so Zara has to go to catch her plane thank you again Lisbon what are you doing there why oh your car the vintage car key so so maybe Mike if possible let's have some light on the audience we need to give one mic back you have one okay so we a little bit over time but I thought it was kind of a good discussion so we go a little bit over so we start with one and then two here we were in Berlin last December I think or perhaps we were there twice last year I'm not sure when we did this we saw the situation we saw you in it I loved it I thought it was a fantastic play and I thought it was an important play to show to a city like New York that has a big immigrant population and I could imagine it being done here at one of our nonprofit theaters like the public or something like that the public theater but I'm wondering how you guys would feel about it being performed by other actors not by your company but by another set actors I mean you saw other people performing this play here that would have to be done I would assume with the original languages because it's about language but how would you feel about it being performed by a different cast with this play I would have no problems at all with the situation which is a play where I also have a monologue and talk 20 minutes about my family coming from the Soviet Union to Germany and this would be something I wouldn't allow for somebody else to do this is something which would be too personal or too direct or I wouldn't want somebody else to interfere with that but other parts we could probably do but I think this is something that from play to play you would have to decide whether it's something that you want to you want to give up and you want people to cover your stuff and maybe but with other things maybe it's too personal or you want to keep it with you or a New York actor might have to dig in himself by the casting and tell their own stories and if that's thinkable I don't know if Joaquin Phoenix would play me I would say just go ahead and just do it do the monologue yes everybody's got a price right? I talked about the development process leading like in the case of this play like literally it sounded like up to the first curtain on opening night I'm curious about what happens after that is the play fixed from opening night or does the development continue and then I know as a if you're a rep company sometimes these things will stay in rep for a very very very long time does this text stay the same through cast changes do the productions get revived for many years down the line with a completely new cast and then is there a new development process could you talk a little about that? yeah if it's personal then yes and most of the time we do it that there's still some kind of process that you start again with working with other people but going through the same process but maybe in a shorter time sometimes it doesn't really matter if the scenes are well written for example and it's not a personal monologue or a personal story sometimes people who leave the company also say I don't want somebody else to play my text so you need to have the scenes changed so this is something you need to deal and for the second question for the first question yeah sometimes it does develop if we do more political plays connections to current events and sometimes you just need to change it and to say okay we talk about Syrian city being occupied by ISIS but it's not occupied anymore so we need to change it now so and this is something we do sometimes in the process or also if the play is released just on very short notice yeah or how do you say it yeah so kurzfristig ja sometimes you know after five or six performance we meet again and say no you know this scene doesn't work but if we maybe we could we could do a rewrite on that and then we just rewrite it and try it out so this is also a great possibility then to do it and to change it fast question I love your fearless development process where you just jump in that's really intriguing I'm interested in Magda's how her character was developed especially the suicide and the cutting I do a lot of documentaries with people who have been in suicide watch boards and have been in mental hospitals and that was very convincing I was wondering if Yale had that was a self-portrait or how that was developed as I said in the beginning it's difficult to say about the process of other people because we try to keep it confidential but it was mostly mostly those things the actress who played it she brought it and she she brought many texts about that and many ideas about that so this was not due to Yale but due to the actress who developed the part of Magda maybe one or two more comments or questions Jim I have a question about the evolution of the Gorky theater and its repertoire the first time that I was there it was about I think 2009 and I saw a very radical production of Danton's death but it was still Danton's death and then I didn't come back for a number of years the next thing I saw was the third generation which was just absolutely stunning which seems much more in line with what we're seeing in this piece was there a conscious break when the company said no we're going to do something totally different or was it more of a gradual change or do the older works somehow come back sometimes Christopher well I mean just say who you are hi I'm Christopher I'm part of the artistic leadership team at the Gorky so well 2009 it was a completely different artistic director it was Amin Petras and the new leadership by Shyamil Langhoff and Yancelia was in 2013 so yes there was let's say radical change because you already have a very different artistic team and a very different ensemble structure because usually in Germany you have either if you appoint an artistic director or an artistic team it's basically five or up to ten years that the artistic director takes over with an ensemble and usually when that changes also the structure of the ensemble and the ensemble members changes and yes it was very completely different the older Amin Petras era was very much focused on making theatre plays that were very contemporary especially German contemporary writers and with Shyamil Langhoff and Yancelia we had this very we still have very diverse ensemble with many different faces and in 2013 very fresh faces for the German theatre scene so yes so I think we're getting really close to them it's almost two hours but normally everybody says Frank never do anything more than 90 minutes you know in New York so this was really an inspiring reading and a great play so what are you working on now we were lucky to catch you in a break but what's on the plate for the Gorky or were you involved in with the Gorky I take a small a small break because it has taken it's tall do you say that we don't see it but if you say so no it's really what I have to say and this is really a downside of working like that it really fucks you up because I've played in the last six years I've played more than 100 shows each season while rehearsing five new plays each season and while writing the those things and try to you know going through those processes and it's after a while it's really really really tough to do that no in the beginning it is but then after after a while in this working heaven so now I'm taking a small break and not doing any new so I'll continue doing the performances but Jair is working on a play about witchcraft right now and they do it's called Rewitching Europe this is the working title we're working on we did a two week workshop with her and we're actually renovating the theater right now so the main stage is actually already closed we're still doing some stuff in the studio until mid of June and then we have our regular summer break and we're actually building a black box container in front of the theater which holds 200 people and then we return with the main stage in September and I think it's going to be an exciting and full season because we're actually doing also the autumn saloon it's called so we have regular premieres coming up for the next season alongside the repertoire that we're playing and then we have a festival basically or like an exhibition also in autumn with 30 artists who are showing their works in the theater and we're having guest performances there also and we'll see what will happen we have a lot of program coming up amazing I thought we do a lot here the seagull but you know that's so much more next to the 40 place they have a repertoire you just have to imagine that so again really thank you for coming really thank you for the energy you put in the time we're truly reading that I think caught the soul of that play that dark dark matter I would like to invite you all to come around the corner we are on archive bar as I said before it's on 36th street between Fifths Avenue and are you going to guys come for a moment too? yes with some drinks so if you have additional questions again thank you for coming and I think really this is one of the great things of things are flowing around and they'll be exposed to ideas and also as we just said we spend the time with someone who cut and tried to kill herself and we felt something about it and we learned something so thank you so much and hope to see you in the two other days thank you