Four Walls and a Roof
Podeli:
Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué
Sandra Noeth
Thomas Köppel
All songs are composed by Hans Eisler and written by Bertolt Brecht
Henrik Kairies
Performed by:
Henrik Kairies
Lina Majdalanie
Rabih Mroué
Coproduction: Festival d’Automne à Paris; CENTQUATRE-PARIS; Berliner Festspiele (Berlin); HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin); Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt); Residenz-Schauspiel (Leipzig); Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik (Hamburg); Kustenfestivaldesarts, (Brussels); Forum Freies Theater (Düsseldorf), Germany
Duration: 100 minutes
Photography: Christophe Berlet
*Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Germany.
About the play
In 1947, Bertolt Brecht stood trial in the United States before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), charged with combating communist activism. Brecht had written a statement that he was forbidden to read. The minutes of the trial, as well as this statement, form one of the focal points of this lavish show.
Exile, subversion trials and the humanist haven of an untraceable elsewhere are all themes that run through this new creation by the Majdalanie-Mroué duo. Through their own itinerary of voluntary emigration from Beirut to Berlin, and echoing the most topical political and social questions, faced with ideological confusion and violent confrontation of opinions in a tormented world, the two artists examine the misadventures of the idealist Brecht as he struggles with the repression of freedom of expression.
Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué
Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué, born in Beirut and living in Berlin, have been working together since 1990 as theatre directors, performers, and playwrights. Their work focuses on how societies and individuals engage with truth, testimony, and the ideologies that shape political and social realities, particularly in contexts of conflict, war, and contested history. Majdalanie and Mroué often juxtapose documentary material with performance, video, or staged elements to challenge audiences’ perceptions of what is factual, what counts as testimony, and how narratives of truth are constructed or manipulated.
They were both fellows at the International Research Center: Interweaving Performance Cultures at FU Berlin. Both collaboratively and individually, they have curated numerous cultural events, taught at universities worldwide, and received several international awards.
Their works include: Four Walls and a Roof (2024), Hartaqāt (2023), Second Look (series of videos, 2020), Sunny Sunday (2020), Borborygmus (2019), Do I Know You? (2017), 33 rpm and a Few Seconds (2012), Photo-Romance (2009), Appendice (2007), I Had a Dream, Mom (video, 2006), Biokhraphia (2002), and others.
