A few thoughts from the director, Birgit Schreyer Duarte, about the incentive for this project

There are an abundance of fascinating, riveting topics that are explored and intricately interwoven in Pascal Mercier's novel THE PIANO TUNER, the basis for our play of the same name, many of which touched me deeply--the ambiguity of family bonds, the power of music and the human voice, the magic spell that opera can cast on us, the search for expression in a state of paralysis and speechlessness. Most of all, however, it is the struggles of the piano tuner's twins, Patricia and Patrice, whose unique love for one another is both what makes them whole and what threatens to destroy them, what identifies them and what robs them of their identities as individual beings.

Thinking though some of these issues, it strikes me as a fascinating detail that the words identical and identity are derived from the same root; and yet they can mean the opposite of one another. In THE PIANO TUNER this dilemma is like a leitmotiv for the siblings’ condition. Their life-long desire to be one, to be “identical” - not only in the biological sense of the term but also in their perception by one another – is precisely what becomes a threat to developing an identity of their own for them. Being identical then rather means living with a non-identity.

I myself have an identical twin. Of course, our strivings to become individual personalities were never nearly as tragic or sensational as those in Mercier's novel. Nevertheless we feel a strong sense of identification with the story and its issues. Growing up as a twin is like living with a mirror in some ways, not so much visually, but emotionally and mentally: the familiarity of one another’s thought patterns and experiences creates a unique sense of shared identity that can be both threatening and incredibly enriching. We can relate to the twins' idiosyncracies such as our ability to virtually read the other one’s mind, our secret language and sign languages, and our tendency, especially at a younger age, to refuse other people access to our own safe world. On the other hand, we suffer similarly from the "necessity" to live apart from each other, and our persistent longing for a life together, as Patrice and Patricia do in the novel. Working on translating, adapting and directing this material in a collaborative effort with my sister and a creative team may become one possible way for me to express and process the paradox that lies in the bonds of twinhood.