I Speak of Me As I Am - A Necessary In(ter)vention

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

I Speak of Me As I Am - A Necessary In(ter)vention
A temporary ensemble of artists (re)writing Shakespeare’s characters of color

By MxCAT (QUEERDOS Kollektiv) and Ensemble
Languages: English, Farsi, German…

What does Shakespeare have to do with intervening in colonial violence? With erasure? With memory? With us? 

“I Speak of Me as I Am – A Necessary In(ter)vention” responds to these questions—and far more. Not from within the center of Europe, but from outside it: from West African, Persian, and Romani storytelling traditions. From biographies that have learned to breathe under the weight of the archive. This is a decolonial stage-body. 

We weave radically composed scores, sonnets, queer feminist myths, political manifestos, and oral wisdoms (proverbs) into a multilingual, resonant space. We do not take the stage as characters—we speak through and with them. Othello, Caliban, Cleopatra, and Lucy emerge both as echoes of colonial projection and as reverberations of historical and contemporary struggles for visibility, dignity, and belonging. 

We don’t just ask what Shakespeare’s texts can still tell us—we ask who is even allowed to tell them. In a time when self-representation is framed as a threat, and the erasure and censorship of racialized voices continues, we speak back. We invoke ancestors and voices from the 1989 revolution in East Germany—May Ayim, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Anton Wilhelm Amo. From insurgent bodies to marginalized narratives. 

Did the erasure really begin when the borders collapsed?
Where were the Black girls in the ’89 footage?
Where were the Arab sons of Neukölln?
Why do I only see white faces celebrating freedom?

What if we dove into a polyphonic network of voices, glances, breaths, and languages to shape a stage of shared responsibility? A space where literary visions are not only pursued, but challenged—as unfinished projects. This is not a place where we die to honor literature. This is a place where we speak to reclaim our lives. 

Afrofuturist poetry meets Persian love verses. Romani history meets Elizabethan pathos.Everything speaks. Everything answers.

Trigger Warning: This performance contains themes of racial and colonial violence, partial nudity, historical oppression, and discussions of systemic discrimination. It also includes references to sexualized violence, displacement, and erasure. Viewer discretion is advised. Support resources will be available for those who may find the content distressing.

This performance is a cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence “Africa Multiple. Reconfiguring African Studies.”

Regie: MxCAT
Regieassistenz: Cat Jones
Dramaturgie: Aleo Arndt / Ife Aboluwade
Schauspiel: Roxie Thiele Dogan, Ruby Engel, Mehrdad Gharibian, Elnathan John, Danya Harvey, Ännie Krippner Musik: TRACE
Bühne & Grafik: Noah Osarenren
Kostüm: Periklis
Lichtdesign: Sol Sebastian Solorzano
Choreografische Unterstützung: Rob Fordeyn
Sound Engineering: Legalmoney
Studio Produktion: Cluster of Excellence “Africa Multiple” (University of Bayreuth) in cooperation with Ballhaus Prinzenallee Berlin and QUEERDOS Kollektiv.

Preisinformation:

10.00 - 15.00€