Ophelia comes to Brooklyn
‘The self is also a creation, the principal work of your life, the crafting of which makes everyone an artist. This unfinished work of becoming only ends when you do, if then, and the consequences live on.’ – Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby
How do you get to know somebody through what they have left behind? Ophelia Comes to Brooklyn is a theatre script that Antje Katcher wrote in 1982. In 1967, when she was 20 years old, she emigrated from a small German town to New York City. When she died in 2014, she left an inheritance for her niece, Katja Dreyer, which included letters, poems, objects, a group of friends… all fragments of an unwritten biography.
Now, by staging Ophelia Comes to Brooklyn, three actors are attempting to decipher the story – the play and Antje’s life itself. Together, you will travel across time and space: Germany in the fifties, Russia in the sixties, New York in the seventies. You will experience poetry readings, feminist protests, and a commemoration. How did Antje reinvent herself in the New World?
• The German theatre director Katja Dreyer lives and works in Brussels. Her previous works include Überflieger and Kroniek. As a performer, she has worked for Mette Ingvartsen, Mette Edvardsen, Superamas, Ivana Müller, David Weber-Krebs and Miet Warlop, among others.
idea & concept Katja Dreyer | performance & creation Katja Dreyer, Davis Freeman, Dolores Hulan | text Katja Dreyer, Davis Freeman, Antje Katcher | light design Hans Mejer | sound design Chris Umney | space, advice, collage Britt Hatzius | dramaturgy Esther Severi (Kaaitheater) | paintings Bernard van Eeghem | photography Antje Katcher | production Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek | co-production C-Takt, Dommelhof & Buda | support Flemish Community & Flemish Community Commission| thanks to Paul Genega, Susan Landau, Jackie Myer, Canio's Books Sag Harbour, Rev Katrina Foster, Willem de Wolf
