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Ariel Efraim Ashbel and Rachel Libeskind, photo credit: Anton Tal<\/p>\nAriel Efraim Ashbel and Rachel Libeskind, photo credit: Anton Tal<\/p>\n
Weaving together herstorical voices through a tapestry of text, imagery and sound, for (Regina, Rosa, Ruth and Rachel) is the new performance by Ariel Efraim Ashbel and Rachel Libeskind. Premiering at Sophiens\u00e6le, the work returns to Ashbel\u2019s and Libeskind\u2019s ongoing exploration of Yiddish theatre and Jewish traditions. Sophiens\u00e6le sits in the heart of Mitte\u2019s Scheunenviertel neighbourhood, which was a thriving hub for Jewish communities arriving from eastern Europe in the early 1900s. The histories embedded within its walls and the surrounding streets provide a rich source of material for the group\u2019s latest work. While the work centres on four names \u2013 Regina, Rosa, Ruth and Rachel \u2013 their presence on stage extends far beyond fixed identities. Instead, the piece connects the different elements of story, artistic production, music and tradition, attempting to connect past, present and future through a spatial, sensory experience. In doing so, fRRRR seeks to reanimate fragments of a culture that has long been obscured or erased. We spoke to Ariel as preparations were underway.<\/p>\n
Your new work for (Regina, Rosa, Ruth and Rachel) is part of Sophiensaele\u2019s 30-year anniversary programme. What does it mean to be included in this moment?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s wonderful to be included! It\u2019s really a combination of research and happenstance: the project grew organically for several years and luckily coincided with the anniversary year. Also, my artistic partner Rachel Libeskind has her studio in Mitte, which means that between work and pleasure, we\u2019ve been spending a lot of time in the kiez, so it all feels really serendipitous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Rabbi Regina Jones, image credit: Centrum Judaicum Berlin<\/p>\n
Were you already familiar with the history of the Scheunenviertel and its Jewish cultural past, and did anything new emerge during your research?<\/p>\n
I knew that the Scheunenviertel was historically Jewish, but was unaware of the specifics \u2013 that it was mostly East European Jews [Ostjuden] that lived there, and that for several decades the whole place was basically a very lively shtetl [Yiddish for \u2018little town\u2019]. I gained that knowledge in 2024, when Rachel and I made the second walk in our series Dialectics of Departure for the Sophiensaele. Doing that research, we learned that there was a rich Yiddish performance scene in the whole area, including the theatre itself. That\u2019s where the idea to make fRRRR came from. It\u2019s really a direct continuation of that work.<\/p>\n
What kinds of archives or source materials shaped the work? How did you arrive at these four names as your focal point?<\/p>\n
We looked at early 20th-century Berlin: ads, magazines, letters, postcards, censorship reports from the theatre police. Our research style is dynamic and slightly hectic: we go back and forth from the street to the screen, more intuitively than methodically. While walking, we came across the house where Regina Jonas, the world\u2019s first woman rabbi, was born, and the dedication idea came up. Then it was clear we needed four names, because in Jewish tradition we have four foremothers. So we looked at other iconic Jewish women who made an impact on German cultural life. We loved that Rachel can refer to many, including one of us. Ruth Klinger is a lesser known performer who ran her own Yiddish cabaret in the 1920s. Rosa is not only the celebrated Rosa Luxemburg, but also Rosa Klauber who owned a successful lace business in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n
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Courtesy of the John & Alice Coltrane Home, 1995<\/p>\n
Without giving too much away, how does this research translate into the performance itself?<\/p>\n
The last point about Rosa Klauber is a perfect example. Digging more into her visual archives, we realized that lace will be a material we really want to work with in the show. References that we came across \u2013 visual, musical, textual \u2013 will be woven into the texture of the show. And just like the process, the composition itself will be collagey and abstract, intuitive and sensual. And fun!<\/p>\n
Your work often engages with Yiddish theatre and Jewish traditions. What\u2019s the relationship between you, your work and these traditions?<\/p>\n
I feel very close to Yiddish traditions, as they\u2019re experimental in nature. They belonged to a marginalised group that never had access to the realm of art, and interdisciplinarity just naturally existed in that realm: cabaret, folktales, stand-up and drag all happened hand in hand without being defined as experimental. And beyond the love I have for the material, it\u2019s important to say that I\u2019m not at all a Yiddish expert. Far from it. It\u2019s a rich and mysterious world I have this uncanny relation to \u2013 like a weird faded memory of a dream. So my invitation to the audience is not so much to learn from us, but more an invitation to explore, and maybe get lost in this material together.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Holzer-Rokhl.jpg\")
Nick Fletcher, courtesy of Paula Boltman<\/p>\n
How did you approach bringing collaborators on board? What kinds of practices or disciplines felt essential to this piece?<\/p>\n
I always work with my friends! In addition to Rachel, who is my co-director, our musical director is my dear friend Maya Dunietz, an incredible composer and performer with whom I started working more than 20 years ago. A newer friend is the visual artist Ella Ponizovsky-Bergelson, who will create a huge new text-painting on stage. There\u2019s a wide range of audio-visual experimentation that I felt was urgent for this piece.<\/p>\n
Your works often bring together artists with strong, distinct practices. I remember watching how seamlessly Peaches performed in Fiddler! A Musical. How do you build a cohesive language across such a range of artists and voices?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m constantly asking myself that throughout my 20 plus years of making stage work. In a way, I see the director\u2019s role as a kind of curator: I offer a direction for us to look at together, and I\u2019m much more interested in shaping the frame than to intervene with people\u2019s practice or the content they\u2019re invested in. The more I let go of the world I\u2019m shaping and invite people to be themselves in it, the more I find my cohesive artistic voice. It\u2019s a bit counterintuitive or might sound like a paradox, but I truly feel like that\u2019s the magic of making theatre. Rather than saying things, it allows things to emerge.<\/p>\n
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Image from Liebende Frauen<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve shared some of your source images. What role do they play in shaping the emotional or conceptual world of the piece?<\/p>\n
They\u2019re photos of Rabbi Regina Jonas, musician and spiritual teacher Alice Coltrane Swami Turiyasangitananda, Yiddish performer Rokhl Holzer and the cover of Liebende Frauen, a 1920s lesbian magazine. They give a taste of the attitudes that inspire us: weird, sexy, silly, devoted, always looking back.<\/p>\n