Corinne Maier:
Past is present
Past is present
Shaheen has been living in Berlin for almost twenty years and keeps in touch with his parents in Bangladesh, his brother in New York and his sister in Sydney by phone and Skype. He was also in a long-distance relationship with his ex-girlfriend in Poland for seven years and their ten-year old son still lives with his mother in Warsaw. Shaheen manages to visit them every few months.
Is this really sufficient contact to retain a family atmosphere? Shaheen often asks himself the questions: What sort of relationship do I have with my own family that is spread across four continents and five countries? Do I actually do enough for them? Am I really 'there' for them? Today, Shaheen Dill-Riaz is not the only one faced with these questions. Millions of other people live similar family lives thousands of miles apart.
After filming four successful cinema-documentaries in Bangladesh, the cameraman, director and film producer Shaheen Dill-Riaz has now decided to turn the spotlight on himself and his family in cooperation with Corinne Maier and the team for a documentary theatre project called 'Past is Present'. Shaheen Dill-Riaz is the star of the evening together with the actress Anne Haug, who explores the (hi)story of her own family from Basel on stage. The result is a blend of local and global experiences that create a kaleidoscope of modern day family life.
STAGE DIRECTION Corinne Maier PERFORMANCE Shaheen Dill-Riaz, Anne Haug DRAMATURGY Kris Merken MUSIC, ELECTRONICS Bernhard la Dous STAGE Valerie Hess COMPANY MANAGEMENT stranger in company ℗
In Coproduction with Kaserne Basel. Funded by Fachausschuss Theater, Tanz BS/BL, Migros kulturprozent, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Wilhelm und Ida Hertner-Strasser Stiftung, Gesellschaft für das Gute und Gemeinnützige Basel, Fondation Nestlé pour l'art, Futrum Stiftung, Stiftung Edith Maryon and Artephila Stiftung. Special thanks to our media partner taz.die tageszeitung.
CORINNE MAIER lives and works as a director and performer in Basel. She studied cultural studies and aesthetic practice in Hildesheim until 2009. She worked as a dramaturg, is co-founder of the theater collective magic garden, and first appeared on stage herself in lecture performances. In 2012, she began directing and has since staged Past Is Present (2013) and Like A Prayer (2015), among others, with which she has toured to festivals in Europe and India. In 2017 she developed Children of Tomorrow together with the author Tina Müller for the Munich Volkstheater. In 2018 she created The end of the world as we know it, which was shown at the Festival Politik im freien Theater in Munich, among others, and in 2019 BUNKERN at the Luzerner Theater. Extensive expeditions and research are at the beginning of her often documentary theater works.