The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner

The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner interrogates the true story of a notorious Nazi criminal who escaped sentencing and the lasting impact his horrendous legacy has had on the world.

Instrumental to the deportation of over 100,000 people to concentration camps and ghettoes, Alois Brunner evaded numerous arrest attempts. Finally fleeing to Damascus, he played a significant part in building Syria’s intelligence services – advising the ruling government on effective torture and interrogation techniques.

Arriving in twenty first century Berlin as a refugee, Syrian playwright Mudar Alhaggi discovers Brunner’s story and begins to obsessively research Brunner’s life and their inextricable link, before mysteriously disappearing.

In this gripping play we meet two actors piecing together the fragments of Alhaggi’s research as personal experience and world history as truth and fiction collide.

Weaving together Syrian and German history, The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner explores exile, accountability and political memory – and the complex thread that ties the past to the present.

As wars rage around the globe, and with the recent fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Carlow Arts Festival is honoured to present this crucial work which raises searing questions about refuge, justice, and hope.

The performance will be followed by a Post Show talk with the artists, on stage at The George Bernard Shaw Theatre.

Performed in Arabic with English subtitles.