based on motifs from the novel “Child of All Nations” by Irmgard Keun
The Berlin theatre group andcompany&Co. humorously combines pop and political activism. In “Land aller Kinder” (“Country of All Children”), they have staged an “adult play for children” from age ten upwards that appeals equally to all generations – inspired by the novel “Child of All Nations” (1938) by author Irmgard Keun, who herself had to flee from the Nazis. The story of the eleven-year-old novel’s narrator Kully is interwoven with the personal stories of the performers: Luna Ali, for example, who fled Syria with her family as a child, or Damon Taleghani, whose parents came to Germany from Iran.
Narratives and personal as well as historical perspectives deal with the pressing issues of flight, emigration and human rights: Who vouches for those for whom no one can vouch? What does it mean to be a child of all nations and therefore of no nation? While the children challenge more and more abstract ideas such as borders, the adults on stage are running out of breath and explanations. Is this already the “country of all children” or just a stopover?