A scientific experiment on stage that shakes the origins of humankind, posing a fundamental question of what it means to be human

“It is difficult to speak the truth, for although there is only one truth, it is alive and therefore has a live and changing face” — Franz Kafka

DNA is an invisible encyclopedia. This genetic code, embedded in the fabric of our bodies, not only made us who we are today but also carries traces of our ancestors from tens of thousands of years ago. DNA, the blueprint of all living beings—but how has this encyclopedia become what it is? How can we read, decode, and interpret it?

Svante Pääbo – winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Medicine – embarked in the 1990s on a bold quest: to decipher the DNA of our ancestors, the Neanderthals, in order to compare it with our own and try to trace the origins of humankind. His research shifted the scientific paradigm. The findings went beyond academic achievement and prompted us to ask again: Who are we? Where did we come from? And where are we headed?

<Neandertal> is a work based on Svante Pääbo's research and biography, drawing further inspiration from real-life scientists including Rosalind Franklin, Gregor Mendel, Craig Venter, and Maja Paunović. The performance invites audiences into the lives of dedicated researchers who have reshaped our fundamental understanding of the world.

The performance brings to the stage the intersection of scientists' research and private lives, and experiments and emotions. Six actors portray scientists decoding strands of DNA in the solitary space of the laboratory—while also living as humans who love, agonize, and hesitate. Their lives and research mingle, collide, and feed off each other, and their discoveries, born from the laboratories, overturn our perceptions of human origins and shatter every notion of racial or ethnic purity. And it says, life has reached us through dark and painful moments and will continue beyond us.

<Neandertal> reveals that the origin of humankind lies in a continuum of crossings, mixtures, encounters, links, and ruptures. It addresses head-on the questions facing our society today: Who are we, and where do we come from?