BAGHDAD BURNING

By Riverbend/John von Düffel
Guest performance from Zurich / Kellertheater Winterthur
27 April 2010 at 20.00 hrs
In German language

There are over 500 different kinds of palm trees in Iraq. They vary in type from short, stocky trees with a shock of haphazard, green fronds… to long, slim trees with a collection of leaves that seem almost symmetrical in their perfection. [...] Soon after the occupation, many of the palms were hacked down by troops. We want 5 troops dead for each tree they cut down… five troops.

The famous weblog Riverbend formed the basis of John von Düffels dramatic text Baghdad Burning. On 17 August 2003, an Iraqi woman started blogging about the war, asking irritating questions, documenting the horrors and humiliations in its wake. The young IT expert describes how everything changed after the invasion of the US-American "liberators", how destruction, violence and death have penetrated her life and how the "war on terrorism" has thrown the country back a few decades.

With so powerful a monologue, an obtrusive stage design would divert attention. Director and stage designer Albert Michel Bossard has employed sparse means to a great effect. When the lights went on at the end of the play, no-one in the audience was able to get up immediately. What we had just heard was a punch in the face. At least for the remainder of that night, all of us surely were quite content with what we have here. Magdalena Ostojic, Der Landbote.