From Phil Collins Hotel de Rome (2012). Photo: Ivana Kličković.Courtesy Shady Lane Productions
As the Berlin Wall went up, actress Susanne Sachsse's grandmother, Luise Brand, simultaneously envisioned her very own private fortress in the East German countryside with walls twice as thick as the ones in the capital – not too unusual a story so far. That she lived there with her husband, two dogs, two daughters and also her lover does add a little more spark to it. Originally conceived of as a feature-length experimental film including family films, photo material and found footage, Sachsse now takes her grandmother's story to the stage in collaboration with the lauded experimental rockers of Xiu Xiu as well as performance artist Vaginal Davis, guitarist Marc Siegel, artist Jonathan Berger and others. Staged at Silent Green Kulturquartier from Dec 8-11, with lyrics by Sachsse herself, Original Sin raises questions about state borders and domestic walls as well as the role of women in socialism and the GDR in particular.