Premiere: I. Grief. Different

DRAMA

Small House

A Funeral Feast
World Premiere
by Ralph Tharayil
Directed by Miriam Ibrahim

“I. Grief. Different.” is an invitation to an evening of theater about grief, fathers, ancestors, and their political afterlives: What if grief has no fixed place, no right time? If grief belongs only to ourselves—can we then share it with others? And what if grief itself also wants to be honored and celebrated? The Festival of Grief explores rituals: forms and gestures of coming together that turn grief into a shared experience—and asks whether an encounter in the theater can be such a moment. Inspired by Kendrick Lamar’s song “United in Grief,” the ensemble sets out to explore what unites and divides us in grief. “So actually, I have no idea what I’m doing here. What I’m talking about. Because I’m still alive. That means I actually have no idea about death,” writes Ralph Tharayil. He was the resident playwright at the Bühnen Bern, where Miriam Ibrahim directed his play “Mogli oder this way is not the way to the waterfall (really not).” With “Ein Trauerfest,” they continue their collaboration.