David Cassel’s “Exit Strategy”
Busland Film and Music Studio presented David Cassel’s “Exit Strategy – A Berlin Story”, March 16th to 19th, 2023.
On May 1st, 2023, Busland will permanently exit this location.
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David Cassel’s Exit Strategy
“Exit Strategy” presents the story of how David Cassel and his daughter came to live in an old 1985 English school bus in the centre of Berlin’s capital city. Using original songs, physical theater, circus, comedy, film, poetry and his very own, very personal style of madness, David Cassel brings his 45 years of performance experience into an energy charged evening.
With a few comic side journeys to “Fear of the future” and “Life during lockdown”, “Exit Strategy” delves into how the Cassel family innovates while the world continues to throw curve balls.
Ticket price includes Homemade pizza and a soft drink. A guaranteed good time.
Short Trailer
Extended Trailer
Synopsis
David’s father, Wilhelm Heinrich Oigen Cassel, was born in Berlin in 1931. He escaped Nazi Germany as a 7 year old child in November 1938. His exit was engineered by his Aunt Hilda who had moved to England shortly after the Nuremburg Laws had been passed on September 15, 1935. With a specially acquired visa, he was one of only 10,000 children to be spirited off to safety from state persecution through the British “Kindertransport” program in 1938.
1935
Noticing the change in political temperature, his parents feared for the safety of their family. They decided to leave him at an orphanage that was housed in a Jewish Synagogue in central Berlin. During the infamous Kristalnacht, the synagogue he had called home for 3 years was targeted by nazis who threatened to burn it down with him and the other children in it. Thus began an endless journey of displacement and disenfranchisement.
Inter Generational Impact
At the height of the pandemic, in 2019, David and his daughter Grace found themselves without accommodation. They moved to Germany from Canada in 2017 so that David could continue his work opportunities as a travelling circus director. They saved money for their next home by travelling around the country and living in a renovated bus they call “Lully”.
When the pandemic hit, they got caught without a place to park the bus during lock down and little in the way of employment.
In February 2020, after 9 months of living from parking lot to parking lot, several national news services picked up on their story. They decided to do what they could to draw attention to their situation and help them find an affordable, permanent place to park their sustainable living project. Shortly thereafter, the good people at Theater Haus Mitte came to the rescue and provided a parking space in the back yard of Berlin’s premiere cultural rehearsal and production facility.
A story was done by Germany’s national broadcaster, ARD, that summed up the very unusual circumstances. You can watch it here:
And now the story continues as it becomes time to look, once again, for that elusive permanent location where this living art installation can tell its story. The development of the show “Exit Strategy” has been temporarily suspended until that challenge is overcome.
The next move is on May 1st 2023. Watch this space to find out where they land!