Basel Zaraa: Dear Laila – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin
Basel Zaraa:
Dear Laila
Dear Laila
Optionally English, German or Arabic
25€/20€/15€/10€
Berlin premiere
Dear Laila is an installation for one person per time slot:
16/17.05.: Every 20 min. between 15:00–23:00
18.05.: Every 20 min. between 12:00–20:00
Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the start of the event. Late admission is not possible.
Relaxed Slots: 16./17.05.: 14:30; 18.05.: 11:30; Further information here.
The box office on 16 & 17.05. opens at 14:30. The box office on 18.05. opens at 11:30.
„Dear Laila, you are five now and have started to ask me where I grew up, and why we can’t go there. This is me trying to give you an answer.“
The seeds of Dear Laila were planted when Basel Zaraa’s five-year-old daughter began to ask him about his home growing up. Unable to take her there, he decided he would try to bring the place to her, by creating a model of his childhood home in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Dear Laila, which has been touring the world since 2022 and won the ZKB audience Award in 2023, shares the Palestinian experience of displacement and resistance through the story of one family, exploring how war and exile are experienced through the everyday, the domestic, and the public space.
An intimate, interactive installation experienced by one audience member at a time, Dear Laila uses the retelling of memories, tactile details and objects to bring this now destroyed place to life.
The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 278 900 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 278 900 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Early boarding
If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding.
Tickets
- Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm–6pm
- Via the online ticket shop
- At the box office
You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.
By: Basel Zaraa
Translator, script editor: Emily Churchill Zaraa
Sound engineer: Pete Churchill
Production assistant: Ward Zaraa
Basel Zaraa is a UK-based Palestinian artist whose work uses the senses to bring audiences closer to experiences of exile and war, and who creates art in order to face, express and understand the trauma that his community lives with. His current project, Dear Laila, received the ZKB Audience Award 2023. His previous work includes As Far As My Fingertips Take Me, a collaboration with Tania El Khoury, which was awarded Outstanding Production at the Bessie Awards in 2019. His work has been shown at over 50 venues and festivals across five continents.
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