The Old Testament Project
Taps the Past & Present Exodus

SUNDAY TIMES, Malta, October 21st, 2007

Weltschmerz Productions’ ambitious plans of retelling the Old Testament in a cycle of 12 scenic-musical productions are taking a new, exciting turn. Following the intriguing staging of Creation last April at the Manoel Theatre and of Lust & Order in August at the MITP, the focus now shifts from the Fall of Adam and Eve and the family tensions tearing Patriarchic families apart to confront audiences with the story of the Exodus.

The next in line ‘EXODUS’ begins with a repetition of Abraham’s riveting story where the key symbol of the mise en scène is a large ‘foundation stone’ that is eventually broken into smithereens. The ensuing disunity reverberates with the split between Ishmael and Isaac – the very split which continues to hound Jews, Muslims and Christians. It will then move on to a highly symbolic rendition of the Exodus. Here, contemporary political and cultural conflicts have inspired the idea to tell the hope of reaching the Promised Land by a variety of people whose real life stories speak of a relentless desire to start a new life but which inevitably involves the displacement of a community.

“This Promised Land may be a geographical place or an existing state like Israel, a state desired to exist such as Palestine, it may also be an idea or ideology that has to be brought into being by converting or evicting a group of people,” Björn Potulski states. “Our casting may lead us to Belfast to find a Northern Irish Protestant marching through Catholic quarters of the city. We might be looking for an illegal immigrant. Or a Sudeten German whose parents have lost their farmhouse in today’s Czech Republic. A Moroccan writer who sought exile in Paris …”