Amsterdam

theater // video // camera

by Maya Arad Yasur

Translated from the Hebrew by Matthias Naumann

An Israeli violinist, heavily pregnant, enjoys the beautiful old flat she lives in on the Kejzersgracht in Amsterdam every day. Apart from her, only a lonely old man lives in the narrow house; she can smell his cigars. One day, he slips an envelope under her door containing an unpaid gas bill. Over one thousand seven hundred euros. It was issued in 1944, in the middle of the war, when the Nazis were

in Amsterdam. The woman follows the traces that lead her deeper and deeper into the past - that of the persecuted Jews, that of National Socialism and the resistance, the history of the house and the city. She is also mistaken for a Muslim woman in the supermarket, is expecting a Dutchman's child and is asked by her agent to compose a requiem for five hundred dead children.

The contemporary Israeli author Maya Arad Yasur skilfully splinters many voices into a mosaic of personal and supra-personal history that could not be more topical and sinister in view of the escalation between Hamas and Israel and its global consequences.

film:

with Eva Layla Schipper, Tom Afman, Lauretta van de Merwe, Peter Bolhuis

video direction, editing, music: Florian Schaumberger

production: Florian Schaumberger, Susanne Frieling

production (NL): Tom Afman

camera: Florian Schaumberger, Thai Tai Pham

costume: Devin McDonough

The film was shot in Amsterdam in September 2024.

For the videos in the transition from the 1st to the 2nd part of the play we would like to thank Christiane Baeck, Ursula Breitenstein, Dietrich Dorow, Elfriede Lankreijer, Wolfgang Matz, Reiner Möller, Waltraud and Joachim Weggler.

The voice recordings feature the voices of Rosalinde Renn, Berth Wesselmann and Kekke Schmidt.

theater cast:

with Kilian Bierwirth, Nadine Kettler, Catharina Kottmeier, Sebastian Mirow, Lisa Schwarzer

director: Susanne Frieling

concept: Susanne Frieling, Florian Schaumberger

video, stage, music: Florian Schaumberger

costume: Devin McDonough

dramaturgy: Kekke Schmidt

theatre pedagogy: Isabell Dachsteiner

photo credits: Jochen Klenk, Devin McDonough

May 2025