Für meinen Bruder (UA)

They seem to be inseparably connected: according to „I“ – i.e. she, the sister in E.L. Karhu’s latest play, she herself is “ugly” and possibly fat – while “he”, her brother, is “a beautiful man who loves beautiful women”. Their life together is a pairing of opposites, the brother opens doors to life for his sister, to excess, to desire – and she is a necessary antithesis for him, the confirmation of his life-style, a vague and yet strong attraction. Like two celestial bodies in locked rotation, the two of them permanently orbit each other.

In her latest commissioned work for Schauspiel Leipzig, E.L. Karhu describes the symbiosis between two opposite characters. They form a system of watching and being watched, where the boundaries between the siblings become mimetically blurred – and others are involved willingly-unwillingly.

But what exactly is this brother-sister double-orb? A dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship? A game based on a fascination for the outlandish? A morbid sociological experiment? Karhu’s writing is located between and beyond all of these categories, always coming within a hair’s breadth of horror, of psycho thrillers – when what it really talks about is the horror of the everyday, the casual voyeurism next-door, the loathing that joins you at the breakfast table every morning.

E. L. Karhu is one of Finland’s most successful contemporary theatre authors. Following the German-language premiere of “Prinzessin Hamlet” and the world premiere of “Eriopis”, “Für meinen Bruder” is Karhu’s third piece to be presented on the stage of Diskothek.

With her production of “Für meinen Bruder”, Elsa-Sophie Jach makes her directing debut in Leipzig. She studied directing at the Hamburg Theatre Academy and writing for the stage at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2018, her production of “Das Erdbeben in Chili” at Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg brought her a nomination as emerging director of the year in the magazine Theater heute. Together with author Thomas Köck, she directed the world premiere of his play “die zukunft reicht uns nicht (klagt, kinder, klagt!)” in 2018, which was nominated for the Nestroy-award and invited to Autorentheatertage at Deutsches Theater Berlin. Also together with Thomas Köck, she directed “Dritte Republik”, which was invited to the festival Radikal jung in 2019. Furthermore, she has staged several world premiere productions by authors like Katja Brunner and Enis Maci.