First reading: ‘She’s wearing a Swiss traditional costume today’

Anna Papst is developing the play *‘Tonight She’s Wearing a Swiss Traditional Costume of Beating’* as an interview and research project. It addresses violence against women – an iceberg whose tip is represented by femicides (which are increasing every year), whilst its hidden mass is domestic violence. The play gives a voice to women who have been victims of domestic violence. And the question remains: why is it so shockingly normal for this to happen?

In the ‘Kaltlesungen’ series, actors and actresses from the sogar theatre read out a new text in the presence of the authors. This text may be unfinished or still in the process of being written. Afterwards, the readers and the audience discuss what they have heard. This provides the authors with feedback that can be incorporated into their further work on the text.

Anna Papst works as a director, playwright and dramaturg. Her plays have been staged at venues including the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Bühnen Bern, the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, the Bavarian State Opera and the Theater am Neumarkt. She took part in the Stück Labor 2017 and was resident playwright at the Bühnen Bern during the 2018/2019 season. In 2015, she developed the ‘Reportage fürs Theater’ format, through which she produced various documentary theatre evenings based on the principle of ‘enacted oral history’. For her work on the project ‘Sie trägt heute eine Tracht Prügel’, she received a two-year grant from the City and Canton of Zurich.