Theater / ITA-ensemble

Birds of a Kind

Are they a contemporary version of the 'star-crossed lovers' Romeo and Juliet?

Birds of a Kind by Canadian-Lebanese writer Wajdi Mouawad is a family drama set amid the enduring tensions between Palestine and Israel, and their far-reaching consequences. We are aware of the changed context in which Birds of a Kind is now being performed, but feel it is more important than ever to bring this story to the stage. We see theatre as a powerful medium to tell stories and engage in conversation.

A distinct theme in the work of Mouawad is that great history and individual lives are inextricably linked. He shows how people from diametrically opposed cultures nevertheless try to live together. That is also the case in Birds of a Kind (Vogels).

When the German-Jewish Eitan and the American-Arab Wahida happen to meet in the library of New York, they fall in love instantly. But is their relationship likely to succeed? Eitan's family carries the memory of the Holocaust with them. Therefore, his father cannot live with his son's choice.

The work of Wajdi Mouawad was put firmly on the map in the Netherlands by Alize Zandwijk. She directed his Bossen (2014), Kust (2012) and Branden (2010), which became a theatre hit. Birds of a Kind (2019) has previously been performed in Germany, also directed by Alize Zandwijk.

Director Alize Zandwijk about Birds of a Kind
‘About a meeting that is destined: a Jewish boy and an Arab girl meet in a library. A beautiful love story. But the Jewish father cannot accept his son's choice.

About the boy's quest for his father's roots, the roots of his family. Which causes a lot of confusion. Because nothing is what it is. About the roots of the girl who has found her homeland again. Because she did everything she could to exorcise it.

About enmity and about identity. About the birds that can fly back and forth over the Israeli-Palestinian wall. A breathless search for who you are. And that we should be able to live like the birds.'

Te zien van woensdag 5 t/m zaterdag 22 april 2023 in Internationaal Theater Amsterdam. Première op za 8 apr en Engelse boventiteling op do 13 & 20 apr. Meer info & tickets. 

Credits

Author: Wajdi Mouawad Director: Alize Zandwijk With: Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Chris Nietvelt, Steven Van Watermeulen, Marieke Heebink, Majd Mardo, Hélène Devos, Nastaran Razawi Khorasani, Yahya Gaier