Musik – Konuk / zu Gast: Ashura

October 29, 2023 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. For many, this is a reason to celebrate. But who or what has been left behind since then? The music theater performance Ashura raises awareness about what happens when cultures and religions have eliminated each other in the course of human history. An important element of the annihilation has always been the extinction of languages: Ashura, with its folk songs, lullabies, lamentations, and festival songs in Turkish, Armenian, Zaza, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Kurdish, and Syriac, illustrates how many languages lived and were spoken officially in Anatolia. Until the forced alienation of people who lived door to door. To put it more broadly, Ashura is about people who are alienated from themselves. And not least of those who are caught between their past and their future. They share their pain, their conflicts and isolation with each other and with their listeners. This gives strength. Who did not belong to “the others” from one day to the next? Who suddenly no longer belonged? The text projected onto the back wall of the dimly lit performance space articulates precisely this:

“Throughout history, humans have banished and eliminated the ‘other’ in order to create a homogeneous society. All of history has been written through the demonization of the ‘other’. Humanity could not learn to live together, could not reconcile with the ‘other’ and could not unite. however, they always longed … For a world in which all religions, languages, and cultures could unite and understand each other.”

Ashura does not take stock and does not look for culprits. It is music theater that tells of a journey - and at the same time opens the possibility space of a transformation.

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