Four Walls
and a Roof
Lecture-Performance by
Lina Majdalanie & Rabih Mroué
In 1947, the trial of German playwright Bertolt Brecht took place in the United States before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was tasked with combating communist activism. Under these circumstances, Brecht had written a statement that he was forbidden to read. The minutes of the trial, as well as this statement, constitute one of the axes of this abundant spectacle.
Exile, subversion trials, the haven of humanism of an unfindable elsewhere are all themes that irrigate this new creation by the Majdalanie-Mroué duo. It is through their own voluntary emigration itinerary from Beirut to Berlin, and in echoes of the most current political and social questions, in the face of ideological confusion, the violent confrontation of opinions, in a tormented world, that the two artists look at the misadventures of the idealist Brecht facing the repression of freedom of expression.
The Artists
Lina Majdalanie is a Lebanese director, performer, and author who lives in Berlin. Her works include Four Walls and a Roof (2024), Hartaqāt (2023), Second Look (video series, 2020), and many other projects. As a curator, she was responsible for No One’s Land (Claiming Common Spaces V, Mousonturm Frankfurt, 2023), Relatively Universal (HAU Berlin, 2017), and Beyond Beirut (Mousonturm Frankfurt, 2016), among others. She has also taught at various institutions, including HEAD in Geneva, DasArts in Amsterdam, Goethe University Frankfurt, HfG Karlsruhe, Leipzig University, and Ruhr University Bochum.
Rabih Mroué, born in Beirut and based in Berlin, is a theater director, actor, visual artist, and author. His works include “Four Walls and a Roof” (2024), ‘Hartaqāt’ (2023), “Sunny Sunday” (2020), Riding on a Cloud (2013), and many more. His works have been shown at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid, the ICP Triennial and MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, SALT in Istanbul, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, and other international venues. Rabih Mroué is co-editor of The Drama Review / TDR (New York) and co-founder of the Beirut Art Center (BAC). From 2015 to 2019, he worked as a theater director at the Munich Kammerspiele.
Credits
Directed by: Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué
Text: Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué
with excerpts from Bertolt Brecht
Dramaturgy: Sandra Noeth
Cast: Henrik Kairies, Lina Majdalanie, and Rabih Mroué
Lighting design and technical direction: Thomas Köppel
All songs composed by Hanns Eisler with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. Additional music composed by Henrik Kairies.
Photo credits:
Photo of Bertolt Brecht: Elisabeth Hauptmann
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Bertolt Brecht Archive, Photo Archive 1/86
Coproduction: Festival d’Automne à Paris; CENTQUATRE-PARIS; Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, (Frankfurt); Residenz-Schauspiel (Leipzig); HAU Hebbel am Ufer, (Berlin); Berliner Festspiele within the festival „Performing Exiles“ (Berlin); Kampnagel Internationale Kulturfabrik (Hamburg); Kustenfestivaldesarts, (Brussels); Forum Freies Theater (Düsseldorf);
Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Artists residence: Centquatre – Mousonturm
Thanks to:
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Brecht Archives: Julia Hartung
Suhrkamp Theaterverlag: Yvonne Büdenhölzer
L’Arche, L’Agence Théâtrale: Amandine Bergé
CENTQUATRE-PARIS - Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt -
Franscesca Corona - Joana Hadjithomas - Ariane Jeßulat - Khalil Joreige - Urs Koerner von Gustorf - Matthias Lilienthal - Nikolaus Müller-Scholl - Ludmila Pogodina - Walid Raad - Ivan Txaparro - Anna Wagner - Maximilian Zahn - Andrei Zavalei