Winterreise

In the organizer's words:

Winterreise is a poetic journey between music, thoughts and feelings: In her text, Elfriede Jelinek explores the themes of transience, foreignness and belonging - inspired by Franz Schubert's song cycle of the same name. "We are here because we are drawn away. By being drawn somewhere else, we are even there in a very special way," writes Jelinek, combining intimate self-reflection with social analysis. Without a fixed plot, the text unfolds in an intense, existential depth.

In the Dortmund production, the text becomes the occasion for a sensual and political search for clues. A joint search for new forms of expression, the translatability of language and feelings and common points of contact - somewhere between spoken language, sign language art, movement, music and visual means. Together with an ensemble of deaf¹ and hearing artists, the director explores the world of Winterreise , illuminating Jelinek's virtuoso language and its fragile landscapes in a completely unique and new way. While Schubert's song cycle Winterreise focuses on the despairing wanderings of a man through the wintry landscape, Jelinek's Winterreise becomes a score of loneliness.

¹ The adjective 'Taub' is used in capital letters. It is a self-designation of "people who feel connected to the sign languages, communities and cultures of the deaf."