Malina

The dark side of the world. Destructive power that lurks inside of us. A burden of guilt for all the atrocities of a human being done another human being that haunts tender feelings between the lovers. The possibility of a dialogue faded away in the unspoken words. Or maybe – the return to the beginning where creative power is stronger than the destructive one. Overcoming of one’s inner demons. Love that is sufficient to assuage the faults of humanity. Poetry that soothes the broken heart. What is going on in our inner rooms? Are our eyes open wide enough for the light to get in?

Inspired by the 1971 novel Malina by Austrian poetess and writer Ingeborg Bachmann, as well as a true love story between her and a Jewish poet Paul Celan who is considered to be one of the most prominent poets after Shoa, the performance does not strive to recreate the exact sequence of this intellectual book. The reader as well as the spectator is being invited to the inner world of “I” – the main women character of the novel, the writer herself, the creators of the play or each and one of us. Memories get intertwined with imagination, irrational fear and moral contradictions get slowly appeased by the love for Ivan, and the sense of collective guilt and unbearable loneliness is replaced with creative passion. And yet, right beside there are tons of unsent letters, inner world is slowly turning into a prison, and the obsession with Malina, the dark side of one’s personality, becomes uncontrollable. The creators of the play raise questions about the fear of living, and where does it come from. Why having so much freedom we sometimes loose our place in the world and imprison ourselves in our inner rooms. Do we carry inside us the guilt of human crimes that prevents us from loving? When you love someone, do you have to surrender your heart to that person? And also, if the man cannot save the beauty of the world, can art do that?