Romeo and Juliet (Zaimoglu / Senkel)

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Data
Title: Romeo and Juliet
Genus: Adaptation
Original language: German
Author: Günter Senkel & Feridun Zaimoglu
Literary source: Romeo and Juliet
Music: Christoph Iacono
Premiere: February 18, 2006
Place of premiere: Theater Kiel , Kiel

Romeo and Juliet in the version by Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel is a complete new translation and adaptation of the Shakespeare classic of the same name , in which Romeo is portrayed as a German-Turkish, Islamic boy and Juliet as a German girl from a Christian family. The piece, which premiered in 2006 under the direction of the Israeli theater director Dedi Baron , was originally a commissioned work for the Kiel Theater .

The version of the play was also staged at the Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin .

The role book is available from Rowohlt Theater Verlag .

action

The place of action is the Germany of the present. A German-Turkish gigolo , called Romeo, and the German Juliet fall in love. Both the boy's Turkish-Islamic family and the girl's clan, who are rooted in Christian traditions, are anything but happy about this. Ethnically and religiously motivated conflicts between the families, which particularly develop in fights among the young people, break out. The lovers who grew up in a prejudiced world ("As a child I was warned: Beware of the gypsy trader, beware of the Turkish man!", "Your name stands for the barbarian custom of putting women in black covers.") Show up ultimately unimpressed and stand by their love despite all difficulties. The possible happy ending, a wedding according to the Islamic rite, is followed in the end - as with Shakespeare - by death.

Both reviewers and the director of the premiere emphasized that apart from language and content-related details, the plot structure itself is extremely close to Shakespeare. "We all know: if you take away people's roots, or something they believe in, then they become pit bulls." Zaimoglu explains the possible projection of the ancient material onto the selected contemporary scenery. “The Christian family falls back into their Christianity when Turkish boys get in their way, turn on their wives and take away their work. The Muslim family discovered their ancestral beliefs when it came to warning Romeo not to give up his clan. The reflection on one's own values ​​only happens in the face of the enemy. "

admission

Ruth Bender from the Kieler Nachrichten saw an "exciting premiere at the Schauspielhaus". The audience “celebrated” the production. The language shows itself in the relational version "of all facets from funny to deadly: When Mercutio angrily accuses the Turkish friends Benvolio and Romeo of their conformism:" You have lived with us for so long ... "If not even the Capulet parents share a common language to have. When the Hodscha, here instead of Father Lorenzo Romeo's advisor, asks sleepily and sensitively whether the love between man and woman can survive the strangeness, and (the) cheeky, down-to-earth maid suddenly discovers the strange as a charm. And in the midst of communication wooling, Romeo and Juliet enjoy discovering their opposites. " Henryk M. Broder said on Spiegel Online with regard to Romeo and Juliet " a fundamental problem with the adaptation of classics "and asked the authors : "Can't you write a new piece about a Muslim boy and a Christian girl or vice versa, and the whole thing takes place in Altona or in Neukölln today?" Zaimoglu explained that the external framework is often given for commissioned works.

After the performance in Kiel, Zaimolglus / Senkels Romeo and Juliet caused a stir in the Berlin production by the Kreuzberg filmmaker Neco Çelik in Hebbel am Ufer , which was published, for example, in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit as “no evening for beautiful spirits” ( Gerhard Jörder ) or by the Berliner Zeitung "failed" (Ulirich Seidler) panned was. As part of the Beyond Belonging migration festival, Celik cast the piece almost exclusively with young amateur actors with Turkish roots. Enis Rotthoff created alternative stage music for this performance . At the Wiesbaden Literature Days 2007, the play was presented as a staged reading with the main actors from the Berlin performance.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German-Turkish: Romeo and Juliet in Berlin . In: The world
  2. http://www.christophbrueggemann.de/sites/stuecke/stuecke_kritiken/romeo_kn.htm
  3. Interview with Feridun Zaimoglu: "Infiltration through penetration". In: Spiegel Online . March 18, 2006, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  4. ^ Love death in Kreuzberg . In: Die Zeit , No. 12/2007
  5. Ulirich Seidler: After a breakthrough comes a break-in . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 10, 2007