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.«
In I LOVE ZELAL dissects an obsessive love story full of ecstasy and the loss of self in 13 lightning fast monologue clips. In front of a “monstrous shrine” a character nebulously named Lovesick speaks to a woman, a phantasma named Zelal. Sometimes he is ecstatic, sometimes irate, sometimes agonized; but the more he longs for closeness, the deeper he falls into madness and a loss of control. What begins as saccharine reverie quickly devolves into a bloody fever dream.
Unfolding somewhere between horror and greek tragedy, the solo performance examines narcissistic reflections, all consuming desire and our inability to distinguish between reality and projection in our incessant, desperate need for harmony and unification. Directed by the author herself as 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 work.
With: Louis Arturo Romeu Pena (as Lovesick)
Written & Directed: Zelal Yeşilyurt
Costume & Stage Installation: Elin Laut
Creative Direction Video, Editing & DOP: Julia Casabona
Digital Artists: Berfîn Karakurt / Jonas Koroschetz
Music & Sounddesign: Fee Aviv Dubois, Joel Schwander & Jurek Stricker
Mixing & Mastering: Jonathan Hamann
Lighting: Trung Tran
Dramaturgy: Simon Meienreis
Assistance: Martha Bamberg (stage), Julia Radewald (costume) & Meera Theeßen (directing)
photo credits: Elin Laut, Julia Casabona
»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.«
In I LOVE ZELAL dissects an obsessive love story full of ecstasy and the loss of self in 13 lightning fast monologue clips. In front of a “monstrous shrine” a character nebulously named Lovesick speaks to a woman, a phantasma named Zelal. Sometimes he is ecstatic, sometimes irate, sometimes agonized; but the more he longs for closeness, the deeper he falls into madness and a loss of control. What begins as saccharine reverie quickly devolves into a bloody fever dream.
Unfolding somewhere between horror and greek tragedy, the solo performance examines narcissistic reflections, all consuming desire and our inability to distinguish between reality and projection in our incessant, desperate need for harmony and unification. Directed by the author herself as 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 work.
With: Louis Arturo Romeu Pena (as Lovesick)
Written & Directed: Zelal Yeşilyurt
Costume & Stage Installation: Elin Laut
Creative Direction Video, Editing & DOP: Julia Casabona
Digital Artists: Berfîn Karakurt / Jonas Koroschetz
Music & Sounddesign: Fee Aviv Dubois, Joel Schwander & Jurek Stricker
Mixing & Mastering: Jonathan Hamann
Lighting: Trung Tran
Dramaturgy: Simon Meienreis
Assistance: Martha Bamberg (stage), Julia Radewald (costume) & Meera Theeßen (directing)