»A production that leaves a lasting impression.«
Rheinische Post
On 9 and 10 November 1938, some 460 attacks on Jewish citizens took place in Düsseldorf. These actions, planned on a nationwide scale, went down in history as the November pogroms. Shops and private property were destroyed, and places of worship were razed to the ground. Contemporary witnesses and eyewitnesses reported intrusions into the most private of spaces, violent assaults and deaths. These events marked a first, tragic culmination of the Nazi regime’s systematic policy of expulsion and extermination. Many more were to follow.
In »Schwarz-helle Nacht«, the theatre collective Pièrre.Vers draws on eyewitness accounts from the archives of the Memorial and Remembrance Centre to bring to life the voices of Düsseldorf’s Jewish citizens regarding the events of the November Pogrom of 1938, guiding the audience through the city to the original sites. At the sites where the events took place, the present meets the past. The perspectives of Jewish people today are also explored. Following the performance, the audience is invited to a discussion with the participating artists and historians.
This performative tour of the city brings to life the complexity of the events surrounding the night of 9 November 1938 in Düsseldorf – making them visible, audible and tangible in a very concrete, immediate and powerful way.
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What the press says:
»This performative journey through time to the sites of the Reichspogromnacht in Düsseldorf becomes a striking, yet also harrowing collage of memories of the darkest chapter in our recent past.«
Dietmar Zimmermann – theater:pur
»Gripping, intimate and performed with understated facial expressions by versatile actors«
Michael-Georg Müller – Westdeutsche Zeitung
»And that is the essence of this tour through Düsseldorf: the past is by no means over. In a very subtle way, Pièrre.Vers dissolves the boundaries between the different eras.«
Sascha Westphal – nachtkritik
»You could hardly make history any more tangible than this.«
Michael Zerban – Kulturmagazin O-Ton
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A production by Theaterkollektiv Pièrre.Vers, in co-production with the asphalt Festival and the Düsseldorf Festival, supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Düsseldorf Cultural Office, and the Art and Culture Foundation of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, in cooperation with the Düsseldorf Memorial and Remembrance Centre, Rheinbahn AG and the LVR Centre for Media and Education.
With the kind support of Hotel Max Brown Midtown and Rheinbahn AG.
The revival in November 2026 is sponsored by the Postcode Lottery.
with Anna Magdalena Beetz, Julia Dillmann, Nora Pfahl, Alexander Steindorf, Anton Tsirin, Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen sowie Halgir B. Abdulkareem, Smilla Antony, Lutz Antony, Linda Antony, Barbara Baggen, Emil Gonzales Dillmann, Philine Berger, Therese Edinger, Alexandra Habot, Lea Heiligtag, Elke Fricke, Aschif Kasem, Rami Lazkani, Willi Mannheim, Karina Oschlykow, Fiona Pedotti, Gabriel Pedotti, Gustaf Steindorf, Jakob Schiefer und Rezkar
Director, concept: Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen
Play development, dramaturgy: Juliane Hendes
Set, costume: Simone Grieshaber
Composition: Bojan Vuletić
Sound: Philipp Kaminsky
Production assistance: Nastasia Radtke
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Fotos: Nana Franck, Ralf Puder
