The first verse of «To be in a Time of War» begins like a series of gunshots: «Say nothing, do nothing, mark time, bend down, straighten up, reproach yourself, stand up, go to the window, change your mind, return to the chair, stand up again, go to the bathroom, close the door».

Throughout her life, Etel Adnan was considered one of the most famous contemporary Arab-American artists. She wrote the text «To be in a Time of War» in 2003 under the impression of the second Iraq War. As if through a magnifying glass, she describes her daily routine and records it in her notebook. While the world around her explodes, writing becomes a way to put things in order despite the catastrophe. It becomes resistance against one’s own madness.

Actress Kenda Hmeidan and director Sebastian Nübling began staging the production in 2024 in the catacombs of a Syrian restaurant in Berlin. Now they are resuming their work and jointly staging Adnan's monument of words as a pounding heartbeat in the basement of the Hirscheneck.