2025 UNWALLING THE WALL

set design for UNWALLING THE WALL, at Theater am Werk (Vienna/A), directed by Yosi Wanunu

Performers: Susanne Gschwendtner, Anat Stainberg, Markus Zett, Tom Crawley, Tobias Resch, Yosi Wanunu, Michael Strohmann, Paul Horn, Marietta Dang
Music/Sound: Michael Strohmann
Video: Nira Pereg, Michael Strohmann
Set design: Paul Horn
Assistance Set: Roland Schmidt
Make-up: Marietta Dang
Written and directed by Yosi Wanunu
Produced by Kornelia Kilga

photos: Sandra Fockenberger

A Theatrical Essay

Bertolt Brecht said theatre should be like a person who has seen a car crash and has to explain what happened to a bystander. Well, I, you, have seen a car crash. We’ve been living through some car crashes over the last twenty years, one big giant continuous global car crash.

So tonight, I will tell the story of one such car crash. I will not try to be objective, and I will not tell both sides of the story. Tonight, it’s a one-sided Rashomon. It is told from my point of view, my version of the car crash. The text you will hear tonight, the show you will witness, seeks to approach Palestine as a microcosm of more extensive processes, a universal car crash we witness daily…I’m using the Palestinian story because I know it. I lived through it.

Unwalling the Wall is a theatrical essay that tells the story of the Palestinian-Israeli war from a personal point of view. It uses the technique of ‘swarming’ or ‘infestation’ to present semi-independent narratives that operate independently but are put together to tell the complex and sometimes impossible story of Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East.

Text: Toxic Dreams