Because the Night

In the organizer's words:

Small house

A Patti Smith song recital
with a declaration of love by Helene Hegemann
Direction and set: Anne Sophie Domenz
Musical direction: Maartje Teussink, Romy Camerun

"Women are my leaders." (Jim Jarmusch) - In 1967, Patti Smith, barely twenty years old, immerses herself in the shimmering world of New York City. She met the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, lived with him in the Chelsea Hotel in the East Village and began to photograph, draw and write. As early as the mid-1970s, her magical, visionary song poetry made her a cult figure in underground and punk culture, and her song "Because the Night" eventually made her a global star. In 2005, Patti Smith and the author Helene Hegemann sit opposite each other in silence for three quarters of an hour in a multi-purpose hall in Vienna. Patti Smith is fifty-eight years old at the time, Helene Hegemann not even fourteen. Nevertheless, Hegemann wrote a book about this encounter in 2021. It becomes a declaration of love to her deceased mother.
For director Anne Sophie Domenz and musician Maartje Teussink, the production "Because the Night" becomes a cartography of an exceptional artist, a shared narrative about music, life, loss and memory. And about the saving power of art.