I love Zelal
drama • written & directed • Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin, 2026
»Today I imagined you breaking every bone in my body until I was soft and spineless. I imagined you wrapping me around your neck like a fine pashmina scarf.
Of course, this idea is not entirely altruistic, I would like to get rid of my form and function and only have one obligation:
To nestle myself around your exquisite neck.
That's all I can see myself doing, really.«
A shrine, a monologue, a descent into madness: In I Love Zelal, writer and director Zelal Yeşilyurt dissects an obsessive love story full of ecstasy and the loss of self in 13 lightning fast monologue clips. A character nebulously named Lovesick speaks in snapshots to a woman, a phantasma named Zelal. Sometimes he is enthusiastic, sometimes angry, sometimes pleading. The more hw longs for closeness, the deeper he falls – into madness and a loss of control. What begins as a shrill fan fiction ends in a bloody fever dream. Unfolding somewhere between horror and pop, this solo performance examines narcissistic reflections, toxic desire and our inability to distinguish between reality and projection and our incessant, one-deep need for harmony and unification. A radically subjective and scathing production, directed by the author herself, both the object of desire/destruction and the master of the story, with the support of a team of artists collaborating on an immersive multimedia event.
With: Mitja Over
Costume, Stage Installation: Elin Laut
Video & DOP: Julia Casabona
3D Animations: Berfîn Karakurt
Music & Sounddesign: Fee Aviv Dubois, Joel Schwander & Jurek Stricker
Mixing & Mastering: Jonathan Hamann
Dramaturgy: Simon Meienreis
Assistance: Alice Faucher, Julia Radewald
Voiceover: take a guess
photo credits: Elin Laut, Ute Langkafel
»Today I imagined you breaking every bone in my body until I was soft and spineless. I imagined you wrapping me around your neck like a fine pashmina scarf.
Of course, this idea is not entirely altruistic, I would like to get rid of my form and function and only have one obligation:
To nestle myself around your exquisite neck.
That's all I can see myself doing, really.«
A shrine, a monologue, a descent into madness: In I Love Zelal, writer and director Zelal Yeşilyurt dissects an obsessive love story full of ecstasy and the loss of self in 13 lightning fast monologue clips. A character nebulously named Lovesick speaks in snapshots to a woman, a phantasma named Zelal. Sometimes he is enthusiastic, sometimes angry, sometimes pleading. The more hw longs for closeness, the deeper he falls – into madness and a loss of control. What begins as a shrill fan fiction ends in a bloody fever dream. Unfolding somewhere between horror and pop, this solo performance examines narcissistic reflections, toxic desire and our inability to distinguish between reality and projection and our incessant, one-deep need for harmony and unification. A radically subjective and scathing production, directed by the author herself, both the object of desire/destruction and the master of the story, with the support of a team of artists collaborating on an immersive multimedia event.
With: Mitja Over
Costume, Stage Installation: Elin Laut
Video & DOP: Julia Casabona
3D Animations: Berfîn Karakurt
Music & Sounddesign: Fee Aviv Dubois, Joel Schwander & Jurek Stricker
Mixing & Mastering: Jonathan Hamann
Dramaturgy: Simon Meienreis
Assistance: Alice Faucher, Julia Radewald
Voiceover: take a guess