Between the River and the Sea

1/4

»The complexity I’ve lived with all my life

has forced me to be alone with my position.

If I’m already alone anyway,

why not be alone in front of an audience?«"

Premiere on 5 April 2025 | Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin | in English with German surtitles

Yousef Sweid, born in Haifa, is a Palestinian-Israeli actor - he grew up between two worlds and had to come to terms with this complexity at an early age. In his solo, Sweid explores his life between different cultures and narratives - between different versions of the truth. Personal anecdotes meet political reflection and are interwoven with memories of a childhood as an Arab child of a Christian family in a Jewish kindergarten, as well as humorous perspectives on everyday family life in Berlin. Looking at his two Jewish-Arab children, Sweid tries to understand how they are supposed to find their way in a world in which their “in-between” seems to be an invalid position rather than a unifying one.

Between the River and the Sea is a plea for the telling of unheard stories and for listening, as well as an invitation to embrace complexities and contradictions.

Press

»Sweid uses small gestures to slip into the character of his father, his son, the divorce lawyer, the ex-girlfriends. And casts a spell over you. Yousef Sweid's life story proves that there can be a ‘between’. A beautiful, clever, funny and incredibly humane evening that is needed right now.«

Barbara Behrendt, rbb24

»Which side are you on? Sweid is asked this question again and again, bilaterally. And perhaps it has rarely been understood as well as on this evening what positioning imperatives mean, however understandable they may seem from the perspective of those affected in a specific case.

What emerges in the deep layer beneath the liberating humor is a very precise study of identity constructions, with which the self-evidence of the ‘in-between’ disappears (...) Rarely has anyone brought the power of external attributions on self-definition to its absurd point more cleverly.«

Christiane Wahl, Tagesspiegel

»A small solo about the greatest possible conflict situation: Yousef Sweid tells of his life in the Middle East and shows himself at the intersection of various identities: Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Arab-Christian - and Berlin. Stand-up theater full of looseness and open wounds.«

Janis El-Bira, Nachtkritik

»Yousef Sweid and Isabella Sedlak tell the story of the Israel-Gaza war and its history, free of accusation and seeking understanding for all those involved. Entertaining on the surface, harrowing underneath. And above all: well worth seeing.«

Elena Philipp, Der Freitag

»There are moments of caricature and shlock, but there is most of all care - a refusal to disavow shared humanity, whether after divorce or October 7. It's a work that hydrates the heart and conscience.«

Sanders Isaac Bernstein, The Berliner

»Precisely because the positions in the Middle East discourse are often clear and all the arguments have long been exchanged, one would like to hear more about the nuances, about biographies such as Sweid's.«

Anna Vollmer, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Credits

by and with

Yousef Sweid

Director + Co-Author Isabella Sedlak

Music Thomas Moked Blum

Dramaturgy Murat Dikenci

Dramaturg. Assistance Irina Szodruch

Director's Assistant Finn Noga

Lightning Design Team Studiobühne

Rights with Isabella Sedlak + Yousef Sweid

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