Empathy simply does not have a lobby

We long for direct encounters, spontaneous conversations and respectful exchanges between strangers – both on an individual and a societal level. Have we forgotten how? Were we ever able to do it? Together with Israeli choreographer Yasmeen Godder, the Ministry for Compassion collective and the production of TOUCH by Falk Richter and Anouk van Dijk, the Kammerspiele is inviting you to explore the current state of our ability to empathise on various levels.

The programme comprises performances, talks and exercises that oppose the brutalisation of language and support the encounter of bodies. The Schauspielhaus production of TOUCH is about enforced distance and a social loneliness raised to unbearable levels by the pandemic, as well as about the fundamental longing for touch that constantly brings us together. “Compassion simply has no lobby”: the Ministry of Compassion put it in a nutshell even before the pandemic, leading them to initiate conversations between two audience members who do not know each other. Yasmeen Godder and her company have also been addressing questions of cohabitation for many years and have developed various formats in the “Practicing Empathy” series that provide space for the complex processes of encounters between strangers.