Dunkeldorf – Ein Stadtspiel

A bomb explodes. And then headlines explode, too. “Baby dies in its mother’s womb”. – “Who set off the bomb?” – “Assassins from the right-wing scene?”

Several screens around the space show what the scene of the crime looks like today as we hurry past it. Unlike the racist assaults of Hoyerswerda, Rostock, Mölln, Solingen, Kassel, Halle and Hanau, the attack in Düsseldorf has not found a place in our collective memory. On 27 July 2000, a bomb killed an unborn baby at the S-Bahn-station Wehrhahn, severely injuring ten so-called quota refugees, many of whom were Jewish. In “Dunkeldorf – Ein Stadtspiel”, the theatre collective Pièrre.Vers involve the audience in a highly complex reconstruction of the events. In emotional testimonials, representatives of police, press, Antifa as well as the people affected by the attack give accounts of what they did or did not do. Düsseldorf becomes an example for similar cases that were never solved. Did the police turn a blind eye to the right-wing aspect? Did the press interfere with the investigation? Was Antifa’s fixation on the right-wing scene an easy way out? This “Stadtspiel” – or “city game” – places all protagonists into the crossfire of the investigation. And the same applies to the audience, too, who have to ask themselves what part they play in this collective memory loss.

Theatre collective Pièrre.Vers is a Düsseldorf-based association of theatre makers under the artistic leadership of director Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen and actor Julia Dillmann. Since 2012 they have developed performative-immersive formats, investigating socially relevant topics with the microcosm of the city as an example.