In recent years, the HELIOS Theater has repeatedly hosted artist friends from different continents, offering them residencies lasting two, three, or more weeks. This led to the creation of the 2024 play “Zaki” about a donkey on the streets of Cairo, featuring Isra Ghaszali from Egypt (see below).

In June 2026, Adrian Hernandez and Jose Aguero will also have a three-week residency with us. The first outlines of their concept took shape in November 2024 through encounters with the poet Briceida Cuevas Cob, the visual artist Mike Uicab, and the musician Jesús Canché, all three of whom are Maya. The plan is to create an interplay between images and sounds, in which a fountain, silence, reflection, voice, and echo offer us the opportunity to recognize ourselves.

First insights can be seen on Friday, June 19, at 7 p.m. in an open rehearsal – in the final presentation on Sunday, June 21, at 4 p.m., they will show interested families and everyone aged 3 and up the final results of what they have been working on during their three-week residency.

for everyone aged 8+

Zaki is a donkey. He is clever and hard-working, he can do heavy work and much more. Zaki is often mocked, beaten and not seen as a loyal and hard-working friend of humans. The performer Isra el Ghazali brings Zaki's inner life to life and gives us an insight into the world of a donkey in Cairo. A sensual, poetic piece of shadow theatre about human interaction with animals.

In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Isra el Ghazali (Cairo) and Michael Lurse (Hamm) began working on this project. In many correspondence and conversations, they developed the idea of dealing with the lives and the fate of animals that work for humans. Zaki is such an animal, a hard-working donkey in Cairo who, badly treated by his owner, nevertheless finds a way to the freedom he deserves.