Lö Grand Bal Almanya

57 years after the German-Turkish recruitment agreement, the musical play Lö Grand Bal Almanya embarks on a journey through time once again. This time there’s six memorable decades of labour migration to get through, sung with songs believed to be long lost, documented with real archival materials and accompanied by passionate wayfarers who sing their hearts out, get themselves riled up and search meticulously for answers to key questions of migrant humanity: Why was the millionth guest worker gifted a moped on his arrival in 1964 and not a fire extinguisher as originally planned? Is this rumour that the Berlin Wall fell exclusively on Turks, which has persisted ever since the historical banana euphoria in 1989, an Anatolian post-fact? What’s the minimum age at which Muslims are allowed to dangle the Federal Cross of Merit on their chests with pride? And what goes through these dyed-in-the-blood Nazis’ heads when they’re served their own thoughts from the mouth of an oriental goat lover in a way that’s not only more stylish, but more authentic? Director Nurkan Erpulat addressed these questions in 2010 in Lö Bal Almanya at the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse. This revival at the Gorki presents not only a change in scene, but above all a paradigm shift. Because Doyçland has been spruced up over the last eight years to a point where it’s almost unrecognizable. Only the deathly-pale interpretation of Turkish-German wanderlust has remained a miserable understatement, as always. Another attempt, then, to face the madness playfully, with new questions.

Watch the trailer

Premiere 25/May 2018

Photo: Esra Rotthoff