Until today, it was always Grandmother who told the family’s stories. But did things really happen that way? Or did the mostly bad-tempered old lady colour the past to suit herself? Now that her memories are beginning to blur, it is high time for the protagonist of Blutbuch to immerse themselves in the events. A turbulent odyssey through their own biography begins. They stumble upon unsettling events of which they would rather not be reminded. But whenever a warm summer breeze blows through the copper beech tree in the garden, they find new strength to rewrite the family’s history. Their version of the story. Their own body used to feel foreign, as if disconnected from their self. Today, they identify as non-binary. Their new-found consciousness offers a home to their body for the first time ever.
Kim de l’Horizon’s debut novel received several awards including the German and the Swiss Book Prize. In form and content, it resembles a kaleidoscope, as shimmering and rich in contrast as the personalities who debunk stereotyped thinking as obsolete.
Blutbuch is the third production by director and set designer Ran Chai Bar-zvi at Schauspiel Hannover. Like Kim de l’Horizon’s attempt to break through old attributions and to open new spaces of possibility, Ran Chai Bar-zvi’s staging will jump from genre to genre and explore new ways of storytelling.