July 2011, Berliner Zeitung

In 2005, Berlin-based Kai Grehn attempted to translate the complexity of Jabès' "Book of Questions" into a 60-minute radio play, at least to some extent. (...) Now he dares an unusual attempt: He extends his radio play with singing, dancing and reading. He has Otto Mellies slip into the role of Jabès and re-enact an interview that the New York writer Paul Auster conducted with the colleague he admires in 1979. The concept of his audio-speech-sing-dance production: Jabès remains true to his principle, answering questions in turn with questions, but also illuminating the biographical background and formative stages in the life of the language absolutist. A capella settings of Jabès aphorisms sung in German and Hebrew respond to chants in the radio play. Dance miniatures, developed by the wee dance company for this project, in turn allow silence, one of the central concepts in the "Book of Questions," to become sensual and at the same time create space and breathing space to process what is heard.