WHO SHUTS the NIGHT

Script by Nona Ciobanu based on the film "The Night Porter"

A former Nazi officer and a woman who was once a prisoner in a concentration camp accidentally met in Vienna thirteen years after the war. Their relationship in the camp began with a rape.

Both Max and Hanna, the main characters of the performance, are prisoners of their own dark fate and history. They cannot (or maybe don’t want to) take a single step outside the walls of this prison. They need to make the past present again and again in order to cleanse, understand and punish the other – and themselves. When they are willing to look at the world through the other’s eye, a dynamic relationship develops between the two of them and they play untiringly, continuously, interchangeable roles: either the part of the victim, or the part of the oppressor.

I think that the relationship between oppressor and victim is relevant today too. It may be manifested within a family or, more broadly, throughout all of society. It is our responsibility to be aware of such abuses and how we often contribute to their preservation.

Nona Ciobanu