THE SCATTERED

Guest Performance as Part of the HNK2EU Project – European Theatre Cycle in Zagreb

Berliner Ensemble, Germany

Tena Štivičić

Die Verstreuten (The Scattered)

Translated from English by Karen Witthuhn

The world is obviously falling apart, and a little bit of family security would be nice in that situation. So four sisters return home for a family get-together as their mother has wished. Scattered all over Europe, they live lives that couldn’t be more different. And then there was this pandemic, which has left deeper marks on everyone than they want to admit. Tena Štivičić has written a play for the Berliner Ensemble that traces the cracks in our society using the example of one family. The complete disruption to everything we know and experiences of isolation on the one hand, and being digitally connected on the other, have changed the relationships between the sisters just as much as they have changed how they imagine their future lives and deaths. But despite all the conflicts, in Štivičić’s play, the attempt to recreate the bonds so painfully missed and at the same time radically assert oneself most definitely has its comic sides too.

Director: Laura Linnenbaum

Stage Design: Daniel Roskamp

Costume Design: Michaela Kratzer

Music: David Rimsky-Korsakow

Lighting Design: Steffen Heinke

Dramaturgy: Sibylle Baschung

Cast

Barbara
In her late seventies, a retired archivist: Josefin Platt

Sofia
In her mid-forties, until recently the wife of a Croatian ambassador: Constanze Becker

Sasha
In her late thirties, author, not a dog walker: Kathrin Wehlisch

Suzana
Fifty, home-based worker, not a housewife: Bettina Hoppe

Sabina
In her early forties, a cook – or rather, a head chef – but in reality an online personality: Pauline Knof