“Hass / Hate / Ură”: Theaterhaus Jena from Germany at Theatro Technis

One of Germany’s most important theatre organizations, the radical Theaterhaus Jena, comes to Greece on May 28, 29, and 30 to present, exclusively at the Frinichou stage of Theatro Technis, its own unique interpretation of the iconic La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz. The production is an international collaboration between Theatro Technis, Theaterhaus Jena, and the Spectrum group of Pantelis Flatsousis. Bringing together artists from Germany and Greece in a rare transnational partnership, the performance is presented in German, Romanian, and Greek, with Greek and English surtitles.

La Haine is at once a film of stillness and explosion: 24 hours in the lives of three young men trapped between the banlieues, police violence, and the constant threat of social erasure. The film speaks about friendship and rage, helplessness, lack of prospects, and the question of how violence emerges and how it spreads. The famous phrase “so far so good” still resonates today: a mantra of denial within a society in free fall.

The international collaboration between the Greek theatre company Spectrum and Theatro Technis Karolos Koun takes the film La Haine as a starting point in order to examine contemporary forms of life on the margins of society.

New texts, written within the framework of the Professional Creative Writing Master’s Program at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, transfer the motifs, characters, and conflicts of the film into the contemporary reality of the outskirts of Jena.

Scenes emerge of young people trapped between their places of origin and rootlessness, between prefabricated housing complexes and globally manufactured images, between social frustration and the rise of authoritarian and fascist ways of thinking.

The hip-hop soundtrack, specially developed for the production by the artist Sorbas, connects directly with the musical DNA of La Haine, in which rap plays a central role as the voice of the streets and as an expression of resistance and self-realization.

This is not a repetition of the film, but its reactivation for the present day.

What does hatred mean today? Who is allowed to speak, who is heard, who disappears, who becomes invisible? How do violence, resistance, and solidarity transform in an era of social media, intensified exclusion, and political radicalization?

Following its first theatrical exchange with Örkény Színház in Budapest, Theaterhaus Jena continues its international collaborations this season with Spectrum and Theatro Technis Karolos Koun.

The German production travels to Greece following the presentation of 24 Hours in a World That Does Not Belong to Us, directed by Pantelis Flatsousis, which was staged at Theaterhaus Jena.

Artists from both Greece and Germany participate in both productions, which take place across the two countries.

Cast:
Ioana Nițulescu, Anna Maria Papaioannou, Florian Thongsap Welsch

Concept, Set Design, Direction: Daniele Szeredy
Concept, Dramaturgy: Josef Bäcker
Video: Gelly Pedefu
Live Music: Simon Schwan (Sorbas)
Costumes: Shayenne
Assistant Director: Ioanna Lioutsia
Props Assistant: Lenni Hofer
Production: Maria Bornhorn

Funded by: German Federal Cultural Foundation; Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

The theatrical exchange between Jena and Athens is realized in collaboration with the Spectrum group and Theatro Technis, in cooperation with the Professional Creative Writing Master’s Program at Friedrich Schiller University Jena.