The intense gaze in his blue eyes, his grave tone, and the numerous references to the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, dozens of writers and thinkers of different disciplines may give Micki Weinberg’s interlocutor a pause: could he really be just 32 years old, and is it possible that Makembo!, one of the original productions sponsored by this year’s ID Festival, is his first play to be staged? But as he said later in another context, »Life is full of contradictions that can’t be reconciled with our needs.«
Last year saw his short film, I hear the Synth in East Berlin, screened at the festival, while the play written and directed by him for this year’s program has cinematic elements incorporated into it too. Another common denominator shared by the two works is the provocative messages and sexual violence featured in both, which is why it’s so important for Weinberg to hold a discussion with the audience after the screening — but we shall get back to it later.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Weinberg spent stints in London, Geneva, and Jerusalem, before settling in Berlin, for the time being. In recent years, though still a frequent traveler, he has been based in a spacious altbau Mitte flat, furnished mostly with his collection of books. During our conversation he skillfully draws selected writings from the shelf to support his statements with quotes, and he seems to share a deep, personal bond with each and every book.