Santa Monica (UA) at Nationaltheater Mannheim

It has taken a while for the doctors to figure out what is wrong with the boy and what the numerous red spots on the little brother’s body could mean. The family is still on vacation on the Mediterranean coast in Turkey, in Akcay, the land of their fathers. When they return to their home in the Ruhr area, mother, father, and older brother recognize what the small boy is missing: Thrombozytes, blood platelets - a syptom of acute leukemia, blood cancer.

Together the four of them each explain the story of the sickness, that is at the same time a story about fear, pain, and hope. The desperation of the mother, who smokes in order to structure her time, and that of the father who tries to find help from a brazilian faith healer, show the attempts of how each of them desperately try to do something against the paralyzing waiting for a matching bone marrow donor.

Ak?n E. Sipal dramatizes a difficult theme in a lighter, humourous and poetic speech score.

Ak?n E. Sipal was born in 1991 in Essen and studied fine arts with a major in film at the College for Fine Arts in Hamburg. His first piece Vor Wien was published in 2012 by the Suhrkamp drama publishers. For Santa Monica he received the promotion prize for literature from the Hamburg Council for Culture.

Tarik Goetzke has previously directed the world premiere of Hurenkinder Schusterjungen by Marianna Salzmann for the Nationaltheater. This staging was invited to the festival for directing Radikal jung 2014 in Munich.