IN MY TIME OF DYING by Sankar Venkateswaran & Leon Pfannenmüller
Two theater makers meet again on a stage after their death. They get to talking, they remember their own experiences with dying, they become contemplative and they take it easy, they explore their theatrical habits, questioning the sense and nonsense of the artistic play with death. Meanwhile, the lines between autobiographical fact and fiction, between pain, consolation and absurdity are blurred. Let‘s talk about death!
Departing from formative autobiographical events, Sankar Venkateswaran (Kerala, India) and Leon Pfannenmüller (Germany) examine personal and social perspectives on death, on care for the dying and the processing of death. How do we die? How do we mourn? And how do we prepare for it? How do we deal with dying bodies? »All are equal in death« – is that actually true?
Leon Pfannenmüller is an actor and theatre director. He studied acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Ludwigsburg as well as cultural and art history at the LMU Munich and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. He has collaborated with, among others, Jessica Glause, Pınar Karabulut, Luk Perceval, Michiel Vandevelde, The Yes Men, and Wunderbaum at theatres in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. He held permanent engagements at the Münchner Volkstheater, Theater Neumarkt Zurich, and Theaterhaus Jena. His directing works include "Die große Schau" (Parts I–XI), "Very Important: This Is About Theatre", "Knast", "Im Tod" (in collaboration with Sahyande Theatre, Kerala), "Blut",and "Spuren". His work has received critical and institutional recognition, including an invitation of "Die Hundekot-Attacke" to the Berliner Theatertreffen, festival presentations such as "Im Tod" at the Feeling Curious? Festival in Rotterdam, as well as awards and nominations, including the Federal Theatre Award of Germany for work developed at Theaterhaus Jena.
He is a founding member of the theatre collective Post Paradies, which will premiere new productions in 2026 at the Münchner Kammerspiele and at HAU, Berlin. He is represented by the Hilde Stark Agency and lives and works as a freelance actor and director in Berlin.
Sankar Venkateswaran is a theatre director from India. He lives and works from Sahyande Theatre, a theatredwelling he built in the mountain valley of Attappadi, Kerala.
He studied directing at the School of Drama and Fine Arts, University of Calicut, after which he trained at the Theatre Training and Research Programme in Singapore. In 2007, he founded Theatre Roots & Wings, and directed Richard Murphet’s “Quick Death” (2007), “Sahyande Makan-The Elephant Project” (2008), Ohta Shogo’s “Water Station” (2011), “101 Lullabies” (2012) and Henrik Ibsen’s “When We Dead Awaken” (2012).
In 2013 Sankar received the Ibsen Scholarship from Teater Ibsen, Norway, for ‘Tribal Ibsen Project’ which furthered his work with the indigenous people in Attappadi. His following works, “Criminal Tribes Act” (2017) and “Indian Rope Trick” (2020) reflect the shift in Venkateswaran’s working context. His works have been presented at various venues and festivals such as Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Kyoto Experiment, Zoukak Sidewalks in Beirut, Theater Commons Tokyo, and Spielart Theaterfestival Munich.
Alongside his work with the company, Venkateswaran directed a number of works as a guest director for various institutions such as Anton Chekhov’s “Seagull” (2011), Maurice Maeterlinck’s “Interior” (2020) for NINASAM, Heggodu, India, Bhasa’s “Urubhangam” (2011) for Shinshu University, Japan and “When We Dead Awaken” (2018) for Intercultural Theatre Institute, Singapore.
Sankar directed “Tage der Dunkelheit” (2016) in 2015/16, followed by “INDIKA” in 2016/17 at Münchner Volkstheater. He served as the artistic director for the International Theatre Festival of Kerala in 2015 and 2016 and was the jury member for Zurich Theater Spektakel 2016.
Leon and Sankar previously worked together for the creation of “Tage der Dunkelheit” at Münchner Volkstheater and have since continued their exchange about theatre-making and other shared interests. Leon visited Sankar at Sahyande Theatre in Attappady, Kerala, in 2019.
Note from Sankar Venkateswaran
"Since the early days of the pandemic, Leon Pfannenmuller and me met online several times and reflected on the impacts of the pandemic on performing arts, and discussed the changing circumstances to which we were seeking ways to adapt our own individual practices. From our discussions we have two questions that we ask ourselves in relation to our work, especially in Attappadi, and in the context of the pandemic: what is the role of theatre during this particular time? and where do we locate theatre?
For the first question, we find it urgent to address the specific topic of ‘death’ – not only in relation to the pandemic, but also death induced by clinical depression, suicides, Werther effect (copycat suicides), and the combined impact of these on people who are disconnected and isolated, especially in rural areas such as Attappadi. We have conceived ways to use theatre as a tool to bring people together, reclaim the common spaces and work towards filling the gaps and erasing the distances that were created among people due to the pandemic as well as the way it was handled, especially in the context of India.
The second question leads us to renewing our approach to theatre practice, audience as well as architecture of theatre itself. We felt the need to take theatre outside of buildings and extend our activities safely into different corners of civil society, such as in schools, police stations, and healthcare centres etc, in order to reach out to as many people as possible. The genesis of the project can be traced to these thoughts that came out of our discussions.
In this light, we planned to create and tour a small-scale theatre production in Attappadi and also beyond, with the help of a portable seating and simple technical set up that will allow us to transform open air spaces into pandemic-safe performing spaces. Apart from the exchanges that happen in India, we also plan to show the piece in Jena and try to find other venues in Switzerland and the Netherlands."
Credits:
Concept, text & performance: Leon Pfannenmüller & Sankar Venkateswaran
Dramaturgical support: Maria Rößler
Stage & lighting design: Maarten van Otterdijk
A co-production of Theaterhaus Jena and Sahyande Theatre in cooperation with Acteursgroep Wunderbaum, In My Time of Dying premiered on March 31, 2022 at Theaterhaus Jena (Germany) and on February 8, 2024 at Sahyande Theatre, (India).
This project has been developed with the support of the International Coproduction Fund of the Goethe-Institut.
