Death Positive – States of emergency
by Yael Ronen

Direction: Yael Ronen
Dramaturgy: Jens Hillje
Stage Design: Magda Willi
Costumes: Cleo Niemeyer
Video: Stefano Di Buduo
Music: Yanic Fridel, Ofer Shabi
Choreography: Colette Sadler
 
On stage: Knut Berger, Niels Bormann, Lea Draeger, Aysima Ergün, Tim Freudensprung, Orit Nahmias

Maxim Gorki Theatre
 
The Maxim Gorki Theatre, located in the Choral Academy on the boulevard Unter den Linden, is the smallest and most beautiful of Berlin’s ensemble theatres and also a historically significant building. Founded in 1952 as a theatre for contemporary productions, it became a Stadttheater (municipal theatre) for the citizens of East Berlin in the very best sense – it was both critical and dissident. In 1988, when Thomas Langhoff staged Volker Braun’s Übergangsgesellschaft (A Changing Society), the theatre prophetically anticipated the peaceful revolution of the 9th of November, 1989.
 
Contemporary plays, new interpretations of classical pieces and an interdisciplinary approach define the programme of the Gorki. The theatre is opening itself up to the city: with a young ensemble artists from all over the world and the theatre coaches of Gorki X, who all invite you to get involved. The Gorki is for the whole city, and that includes everyone who has arrived in the city in the last few decades, whether in search of asylum, whether in exile, whether they be immigrants or simply people who grew up in Berlin.

Yael Ronen
 
Yael Ronen, in-house Gorki director, was born in Jerusalem in 1976. She comes from a theatre family and is internationally considered as one of the most exciting theatre makers of her generation. The greatest tool at her disposal is black humour in the framework of historical conflicts. Ronen’s play Third Generation, featuring German, Israeli and Palestinian actors, was invited to numerous festivals. Another of her productions Hakoah Wien, developed at Schauspielhaus Graz, was awarded the Austrian Nestroy theatre prize in 2013. She staged the world premiere of the adaptation of Olga Grjasnowa’s bestselling novel All Russians Love Birch Trees. Common Ground as a meditation from Ronen and her actors on the aftermath of the war in former Yugoslavia. 2015 the play was invited to the reknowned Theatertreffen Festival at Berlin and won the audience award at Mülheimer Theatertage. Her latest productions at Gorki are Erotic Crisis and Das Kohlhaas-Prinzip as well as The Situation which was invited to the Theatertreffen 2016. The Piece was elected as piece of the year (Stück des Jahres) 2016.
 
Ronen's production, The Situation, which she developed together with the six-actor ensemble, was premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theatre on 4 September 2015, and garnered her a second invitation to the Theatertreffen festival. The piece negotiates the political situation in the Middle East and was selected by the critics in the annual survey from the Theater heute journal as the play of the year in 2016. The Gorki opened its 2016/2017 season with her piece DENIAL, a project about personal and political repression. In addition, Ronen was awarded the Austrian Nestroy Prize for Lost and Found in the category Best Play – Author's Prize. In 2017 she received a prize from the German centre of the International Theatre Institute within the framework of World Theatre Day, and directed the world premiere of Winterreise رحلة الشتاء with the newly founded Exil Ensemble at the Gorki. In the same year, she has also been awarded with the 14th Europe Prize for Theatrical Realities. During the season 2017/2018 she staged Roma Armee and A Walk on the Dark Side at Gorki, during the season 2018/2019 she staged Yes but No as well as Third Generation – Next Generation at Gorki.
 
Since the 2019/2020 season she has been a member of the newly founded Artistic Advisory Board, which advises Artistic Director Shermin Langhoff on the artistic direction of the Gorki Theatre.