My Island Heart 
by Jörg Maria Welke
teatro affetto

16 and 17 March 2024
ARTROOM SCHROTH in the Museum Wilhelm Morgner

The Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst (Conceptual Art Foundation) presents the music theatre play My Island Heart. Stage director Jörg Maria Welke put it together from texts and cabaret songs by Jewish authors and composers of the 1930s and 40s.

The performance will be in German, but a full English translation is available here.

The drama tells the story of a fictional Jewish cabaret artist from Berlin who, at the zenith of her career, is abruptly torn from her life in the wake of Nazi anti-Semitic crimes, deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Analogous to the philosophical question of the fate of the souls of all those who perished in the gas chambers, Welke claims for his nameless character (actress/singer Veronika Maruhn) that her soul has been wandering restlessly in the barracks of the camp ever since. She finally finds peace through an encounter with personified fate (dancer Bettina Rutsch), who gives her back her human body for one evening, takes her back to her flat on the eve of deportation and cathartically reviews the most intense stages and moments of her private and artistic life. In often abrupt changes of scene initiated by the figure of fate, the artist will recall her youth, her growing up, her love relationships, her stage performances and also her experiences of Auschwitz.

Texts by Lion Feuchtwanger, Gad Beck, Yehiel De-Nur and others are interwoven with songs by (among others) Willy Rosen, Friedrich Hollaender and Mischa Spoliansky, which are intoned by Julia Vaisberg on the piano in this one-hundred-minute creation.
The premiere of the complete version, which was received with enthusiasm by the audience and the press equally, took place in November 2022 in the new foyer of the Recklinghausen Observatory. After its performance at ARTROOM SCHROTH, the production will make guest appearances at Bochum’s Prinzregent Theatre and the Théâtre National Du Luxembourg, among others.
Tickets for the performances on Saturday, 16 March, 7:30 pm and Sunday, 17 March, 5:30 pm, can be purchased shortly via Hellwegticket, at the Museum Wilhelm Morgner during normal opening hours and in the online shop of the Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst. 

The performance of “Mein Inselherz” is supported by the cultural sponsorship of the city of Soest and the Bürgerstiftung Hellweg-Region.