Regen in Neukölln

Paul Brodowsky inspires such an immediate feeling of trust that the spectator even accompanies him to the remotest corner of Germany – the Berlin suburb Neukölln. He writes about the city, the streets, and the alleyways. He creates a microcosm within our macrocosm. He specializes in relating the big picture surrounding us on a small scale. The world he portrays is hermetically sealed but nevertheless immensely permeable. Each character speaks with an individual language and an individual sound. And although the very asphalt of the street sticks to the soles of his characters’ shoes and we can smell their sweat, there is no sense that he has sacrificed people for his own ends or invited us to participate in some kind of human safari. All his people retain their dignity and beauty: Ella the indie girl and Marten, who she meets while snorting coke; the young Turkish model Hanife, her father, and Karl-Heinz the taxi driver, plus Hermann, the sinister foxhunting knife grinder – they are all essentially noble and remarkable individuals.

As mysterious as Paul Brodowsky’s characters may be, they all very directly and sharply get under the spectator’s skin, and then move on to our hearts. More than a social milieu, Brodowsky creates an entire cosmos – a universe in which the mundane concerns that keep people going are just as important as mythical, intangible matters. They are all searching for their own holy grail: a purpose in life – why am I here? Paul Brodowsky’s characters are searching for LOVE, and he takes us along on the journey.
Nuran David Calis

Paul Brodowsky was born in Kiel in 1980 and now lives in Berlin. He studied creative writing and cultural journalism at the University of Hildesheim and in New York, co-founded the literary magazine BELLA triste and in 2003 he initiated and co-organized the Prosanova literary festival in Hildesheim. His first book “Milch Holz Katzen” was published in 2002 by Suhrkamp Verlag, as was a volume of short stories “Die blinde Fotografin” in 2007. His play “Stadt Land Fisch” received its premiere at the Münchner Kammerspiele in 2006, followed in March this year by “Dingos” at the Münchner Volkstheater. Brodowsky is currently working on a version of Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” for the Münchner Kammerspiele (première in June 2008, directed by Luk Perceval). He was awarded a grant by the German Literature Fund in 2005; the federal state of Lower Saxony awarded him a prize as the most promising young writer of 2006; and in 2008 he is writer in residence at the Villa Aurora, in Pacific Palisades, California. “Regen in Neukölln” is published by Verlag Hartmann und Stauffacher.