BETWEEN THE RIVER AND THE SEA

“If I’m already alone in my position, why not be alone in front of an audience too?” Yousef Sweid stands alone on stage – yet brings with him an entire world of voices, memories and contradictions. The Palestinian-Israeli actor, born in Haifa and now living in Berlin, tells of a life between cultures, languages, forms of belonging and different versions of truth. Personal anecdotes meet political reflection: humorous observations from Berlin, flashbacks to a childhood as an Arab child from a Christian family in a Jewish kindergarten, and questions about origin, identity and the feeling of always standing “in between”.

BETWEEN THE RIVER AND THE SEA is a solo performance about complexity, listening and the need to tell stories that would otherwise go unheard. Together with Austrian director and author Isabella Sedlak, Sweid developed a work that offers no simple sides, but makes contradictions visible and holds space for them. It combines a personal narrative with collective memory and invites us to understand the space in between not as an escape route, but as a place of encounter.

By: Isabella Sedlak & Yousef Sweid

Performed by: Yousef Sweid

Direction: Isabella Sedlak

Sound design: Thomas Moked Blum

Dramaturgy: Murat Dikenci

Dramaturgical collaboration: Irina Szodruch

A production of the Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin. Presented as part of Jewish Week Dresden 2026.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1098981616?fl=pl&fe=sh