The Seer
- Director: Milo Rau
- Theatre:Schaubühne, GERMANY
- Hosting Theatre :Theatre Factory 42
- Date:
- 17 June - 20:00 hr,
by Milo Rau, inspired by Philoctetus by Sophocles
Collaboration Text: Ursina Lardi
Director: Milo Rau
Collaboration text: Ursina Lardi
Stage design and Costumes: Anton Lukas
Sound design: Elia Rediger
Video design: Moritz von Dungern
Light design: Stefan Ebelsberger
Research: Ursina Lardi, Milo Rau
Dramaturgy: Bettina Ehrlich, Carmen Hornbostel
Translation, Language Coach: Susana Abdul Majid
Consulting, Coordination (Iraq): Sardar Abdullah
Photos by - Armin Smailovic
Duration: ca. 90 minutes
World Premiere
Premiere in Vienna was on June 5, 2025
Premiere in Berlin will be on September 19, 2025
With: Ursina Lardi, Azad Hassan (live)
Short description:
In a monologue based on the life stories of war photographers and own experiences, director Milo Rau explores the fragility of our certainties: Why is violence so tempting? What remains when war and terror destroy the world as we know it?
In »The Seer«, Ursina Lardi plays a war photographer who travels to conflict areas around the world seeking images of dread. She seems always one step ahead of the suffering, and at the same time untouchable. Until she has first-hand experience of what it means to be subjected to violence herself. The celebrated war photographer becomes a jaundiced Cassandra who seeks to battle the blindness of our times. Milo Rau’s new play is based on the life stories of war photographers, Iraqi citizens and own experiences such as an encounter with the teacher Azad Hassan in Mosul, whose hand was severed as punishment during the Islamic State occupation. Inspired by Sophocles’ figure Philoctetes, who loses everything due to an injury and is banished from society, Rau explores the fragility of our certainties. Why is violence so tempting? What remains when war and terror destroy the world as we know it? Can art soothe suffering?
The Schaubühne is one of the leading German-language theaters, with guest performances worldwide and the internationally renowned »FIND« festival
The Schaubühne was founded in 1962 by a group of students around Jürgen Schitthelm in Berlin Kreuzberg. It has been located at the western end of Kurfürstendamm since 1981 when it adopted its current name of the »Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz«. The Schaubühne’s permanent ensemble of around 30 actors is at the core of its work. The theatre’s repertoire includes titles from the worldwide canon of drama as well as contemporary plays by internationally recognised writers which – with well over 100 world and German premieres during the last 22 years – have been a central part of the theatre’s output. Each season, the Schaubühne premieres around six new productions. In addition, a repertoire of more than thirty plays can be seen in rotation.
The Schaubühne also presents its productions abroad in around 100 performances each year: both at major international festivals such as Avignon, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the Venice Theater Biennale, the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, and the Vienna Festival, the Salzburg Festival, as well as in guest performances at theaters around the world including New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Québec, São Paulo, London, Oslo, Ramallah, Melbourne, Ottawa, Taipei, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, New Delhi, Seoul, Rennes, Barcelona, Adelaide, Tokyo, Prague, Sydney, Montréal and Beijing.
Thomas Ostermeier has been a member of the Schaubühne’s artistic leadership since 1999, and in 2009 he became artistic director of the theatre.
Production: Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (Berlin)
Co-production: Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, La Biennale di Venezia
Supported by Goethe-Institute and Fondament