by Sonia Ristić | Translated from French by Frank Weigand | World Premiere
“And I myself didn’t yet know that sometimes it was better not to know.”
Anna in *Lights in the Night*
Six people whose fates are intertwined in extraordinary ways. A story spanning more than two decades. Two wars. Six lives and realities that weave the past and present together. In vivid, almost cinematic snapshots, Sonia Ristić’s eloquent play spans the period from the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War to the Siege of Sarajevo.
Beirut, 1975. In a hotel, Kate—an American who has fled her family—and Fady, a young Lebanese man awaiting his engagement, are held hostage. Guarded by a fighter from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and in the vicinity of a sniper who is paid to use his weapon. Paris, 1995. Kate’s daughter meets a stranger who has been searching for her for twenty years and learns something about her mother. At the same time in Sarajevo. After stumbling upon an unexpected detail in her father’s biography, war photographer Anna stands at a hotel window and films the besieged city.
Through the subjective historical perspectives of very different characters, the play powerfully conveys the strength of empathy, love, and hope, without shying away from confronting the horror of so-called armed conflicts. Both the look back at the recent past and the play’s burning relevance today are particularly moving precisely because of the emphasis on personal fates. The Belgrade-born author, the daughter of a Serbian father and a Croatian mother, lives in Paris, where she studied literature and acting. Her novel *Gewitter* (*Orages*) won the Prix des Lycéens allemands in 2010, the play *Johnny-Misère* won the Prix Godot des lycéens in 2015, and the novel *Des fleurs dans le vent* won the Prix Hors Concours in 2018.
The production is directed by Simone Geyer, a director and video artist who grew up in Potsdam; her work has previously been presented at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Theater Konstanz, the Theater Heidelberg, and the Staatstheater Augsburg.
