We thank our partners:

LIKE LOVERS DO (MEMOIREN DER MEDUSA)

LIKE LOVERS DO (MEMOIREN DER MEDUSA)

by Sivan Ben Yishai
translated into German by Maren Kames
DIRECTED & CHOREOGRAPHED BY: Pınar Karabulut

PFAUEN
SWISS PREMIERE: 20.09.2025
1 hour 30 minutes (no interval)

Medusa is abducted and raped by the sea god Poseidon. Athena is enraged and transforms Medusa into a winged figure with snake-like hair, whose gaze turns all who behold her to stone. Many men embark on a journey to cut off her head and appropriate her power. Perseus succeeds – the anti-heroine is tricked and beheaded.

So goes the myth, and so is the frame of reference for the author Sivan Ben Yishai, who, in her poetic and powerful text, holds a mirror up to the patriarchal gender model. Ben Yishai has succeeded in a modern survey of the cross-cultural and cross-epochal system of violence that reproduces itself through tolerance and support. The narrative energy of the text makes us part of a powerful chase – on the asphalt highways of history, backwards and forwards.

In Pınar Karabulut's brilliant staging, five strong actors form a communal narrative body that translates the text into a choreographic score of almost painful directness. The work, awarded by the Theatertreffen of the Berliner Festspiele, now finds a new home at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, at the start of the new directorship.
 

CONTENT NOTE: The text contains many descriptions of sexualised acts of violence which could have a debilitating and re-traumatising effect.

© Krafft Angerer

 © Krafft Angerer

 © Krafft Angerer

 © Krafft Angerer

 © Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

© Krafft Angerer

SUN 05.10.
with English surtitles
Introduction 5.30 p.m.
PFAUEN
SAT 11.10.
with English surtitles
PFAUEN
WED 22.10.
with English surtitles
PFAUEN
MON 27.10.
THEATRE MONDAY
with English surtitles
English introduction 7.30 p.m.
PFAUEN
TUE 04.11.
with English surtitles
Introduction 7.30 p.m.
PFAUEN
Gro Swantje Kohlhof
Jelena Kuljić
Edith Saldanha
Mehmet Sözer
Sasha Melroch
DIRECTED & CHOREOGRAPHED BY
Stage design:
Costume design
Lighting design
Jürgen Tulzer
Dramaturgy
Mehdi Moradpour
Voice
Wiebke Puls
Assistant director
Sascha Malina Hoffmann
Evening Performance Manager
Stage managers
Desirée Neumann
Prompting
János Stefan Buchwardt
Show more
Show less
Subscribe to newsletter
28