Blutbuch
by Kim de l'Horizon
Opening: 26 April 2024, Theater am Werk – Kabelwerk, Vienna
The narrator in Blutbuch identifies neither as a man nor as a woman. Having grown up in a Swiss suburb, they now live in Zurich, having escaped the narrow structures of their origins and feeling comfortable in their non-binary body and own sexuality. But then their grandmother falls ill with dementia, and the ego begins to come to terms with their family history, with their mother, their grandmother and all the mothers before them.
Director Paul Spittler presents this stylistically and formally unique linguistic act of liberation from the things things that we carry on without being asked, such as gender, trauma and class affiliations as an Austrian premiere at Theater am Werk.
With: Jasmin Avissar, Jchj V. Dussel, Harwin Kravitz, Moritz Sauer, Lara Sienczak
Adaptation: Jchj V. Dussel and Paul Spittler
Staging: Paul Spittler
Scene and costume: Lan Pham
Music: Philipp Pettauer
Choreography: Jasmin Avissar
Dramaturgy: Hannah Lioba Egenolf
Assistant director: Melanie Klos
“How do you adapt one of the most celebrated books of recent years for the stage? […] Ultimately, the way Paul Spittler is now presenting it at Vienna’s Theater am Werk. […] The evening does not attempt to reduce the complexity of the novel but celebrates its polyphony.”
Martin Fichter-Wöß, APA
“At its core, everything here revolves around the question: Who am I actually? There is no quick answer to this in Blutbuch, but the authentic examination of the complexity of this topic is definitely worth a visit to the theater.”
Bernadette Sarman, The Gap
“In the form of a red thread, entangled stitch by stitch, the blood runs through the evening, in which five very different performers appear on stage in belly-free tops: Jasmin Avissar, Jchj V. Dussel, Harwin Kravitz, Moritz Sauer and Lara Sienczak come from the disciplines of dance, performance and acting. In this outstanding production, they share the text and the roles and thus become five versions of Kim: complex and diverse.”
Sara Schausberger, Der Falter
“More than just a lot of anonymous sex: Blutbuch as a sensitive stage coup. […] You have to manage to capture all the contradictions so sensitively.”
Michael Wurmitzer, Der Standard
Photocredit: Victoria Nazarowa
