Explosives: A Ballad

An ingenious play with six female roles, Magdalena Schrefel’s work examines structures of violence and forms of gender identity. Two friends, Bine and Zabina, enjoy playing out the possibilities offered by seduction and cheating on one’s partner throughout several scenes during which they challenge each other. While they roam through the city, Zabinas mother and her younger sister Gina remain at home. Her mother forces Gina to replay forgotten moments of family happiness, marital crisis and the ensuing disappearance of her father, which the outside world would only disrupt. Meanwhile, Cookie and Fuzzi are so old, they can’t venture out at all. They have known each other for an eternity, might be sisters and seem trapped in old rituals like children’s games and counting rhymes. Their child-like habits, however, turn out to have deadly consequences.