Third Generation

“Take a handful of Palestinians, toss in a few Israelis, mix it all up with conflict and season it with Germans and their feelings of guilt. What do you get? A major success!” exclaims the actress Ayelet to her colleagues in the final scene of ‘Third Generation’. The ten Israeli, Palestinian and German actors all belong to the third generation born after the Holocaust and the Nakba (the Palestinian catastrophe). They try to outdo each other with their family histories, prejudices, rituals of remembrance, their injuries and rage. For several months, together with their director Yael Ronen – the up-and-coming enfant terrible of the Israeli theatre scene - they scrutinized the Gordian knot that binds their three countries so tightly together. With a generous dose of self-irony, they used their research to develop bizarre scenes, such as the monologue ‘Don’t compare’, in which an Israeli woman compares the Holocaust to the Nakba to the point of absurdity. ‘Third Generation’ is the first joint production by the Habima National Theatre of Israel and the Schaubühne Berlin.

Director: Yael Ronen
Dramaturges: Amit Epstein, Irina Szodruch, Actors: Knut Berger, Niels Bormann, Karsten Dahlem, Ishay Golan, George Iskandar, Orit Nahmias, Rawda, Ayelet Robinson, Judith Strößenreuter, Yousef Sweid.

Performances in Germany: 8 Nov. Chemnitz; 10 Nov. Constance; 11 Nov. Munich; 12 Nov. Kaiserslautern; 13/14 Nov. Wiesbaden; 15 Nov. Saarbrücken; 10 Dec. Weimar; 15 Dec. Braunschweig; 21/22 Dec. Dessau

‘Third Generation’ is a co-production by the Schaubühne Berlin, the Habima National Theatre of Israel, Tel Aviv, and the Ruhr Triennial 2009, commissioned by the Theater der Welt 2008 in Halle, with kind support from the Goethe-Institut. Funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation.