News

MOSKITOS (Mosquitoes)

by Lucy Kirkwood
German translation by Corinna Brocher
Directed by Anna Stiepani

Anna Stiepani, who has worked at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Schauspielhaus in Zurich, and the Staatstheater in Nuremberg, is directing for the first time at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe. This well-made play by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood focuses on those who are excluded from the social order. The plot revolves around CERN, the famous international research facility, for which KIT’s Institute for Experimental Particle Physics also conducts research.

The premiere takes place on April 17, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe (Kleines Haus) statt.

BURN, BABY, BURN!

by Yael Ronen
German translation by Irina Szodruch
Directed by Yael Ronen

Yael Ronens new play spans a vibrant arc from a fictional comic about fire goddesses all the way back to antiquity, to ancient Rome and Emperor Nero, perhaps history’s most famous arsonist. These ancient images become a sparkling mirror of the present: they reflect crises, displays of power, and humanity’s age-old fascination with fire, destruction, and renewal. With sharp wit, great enthusiasm, and songs reimagined live, a polyphonic theatrical evening emerges that moves between myth and the present, bitter comedy and tender melancholy. An evening about what burns—and what can arise from it.

Die world premiere takes place on April 17, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at Schauspielhaus Hannover.

DIE QUELLE (THE SOURCE)

Directed and written by Calle Fuhr  | In cooperation with DOSSIER

A production of Theater am Werk
In cooperation with DOSSIER and Schauspielhaus Wien

The BAWAG scandal or the Ibiza affair: Behind these scandals are people who provided journalists with sensitive information. In collaboration with DOSSIER, director Calle Fuhr now places one of these sources at the center of his play.
Over the course of several months, director and writer Calle Fuhr held discussions with journalists from Austria and Germany to better understand the mechanisms of so-called whistleblowing. In the process, he also managed to make personal contact with some of the sources. The resulting story is, of course, fictional—though full of allusions to real cases.

The world premiere takes place on April 16, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at Theater am Werk im Kabelwerk.

MONSTER
EINE VISUELLE ALBTRAUMANALYSE

by Recke/Lehmann/Froelicher
Commissioned by the Schauspielhaus Zürich

Costume Design: Pola Kardum

MONSTER explores the early childhood process of individuation and the formative relationship between mother and child; more specifically, the relationship between white mothers and non-white children in the context of colonial continuities and social norms in German-speaking countries.

The world premiere will take place on April 11, 2026 at 8 p.m. at the Pfauen at Schauspielhaus Zürich.

FRÄULEIN ELSE

Freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler
by Leonie Böhm and Julia Riedler
A production of the Volkstheater Wien

Stage & Costume Design: Belle Santos

Following its premiere on February 8, 2025, at the Volkstheater Wien and its Cologne premiere in March 2026, the production will now have its Munich premiere before heading to Berlin in May for the 63rd Theatertreffen.

“A magnificent evening.” – Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
“An impressive solo performance.” – Süddeutsche Zeitung

The Munich premiere will take place on April 2, 2026 at 8 p.m. at the Schauspielhaus of the Münchner Kammerspiele.

MORNING TIME
by Belle Santos & Emi Ogura

Artistic director, scenography, costume design, score: Belle Santos
Performance: Nagao Akemi, Emi Ogura, Nagao Akemi, Belle Santos, Mervan Ürkmez

On March 27 and 28, Belle Santos will present MORNING TIME at the Sophiensæle in Berlin—a production created during her residency in Tokyo. Through poetic imagery, she reflects on loss and grief and develops a choreography based on Japanese rituals.

Tickets and further information

 

BERNARDA ALBAS HAUS (The House of Bernarda Alba)

by Federico García Lorca in a version by Rieke Süßkow
translated from Spanish by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Directed by Rieke Süßkow
Costume Design: Sabrina Bosshard

After her husband’s death, Bernarda Alba declares eight years of mourning and confines her five daughters to the house. All contact with the outside world is forbidden. She rules through surveillance, denunciation, and violence. But the youngest daughter dares to rebel against her mother’s regime, which unquestioningly perpetuates the patriarchal system of the Spanish province.

Director Rieke Süßkow has already been invited twice to the Berliner Theatertreffen for her aesthetically sophisticated productions and is now staging her first production at the Residenztheater. The costumes are designed by Sabrina Bosshard, who was named Costume Designer of the Year in the 2024 critics’ poll conducted by the magazine “Theater heute.”

The premiere will take place on March 26, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cuvilliéstheater (Residenztheater Munich).

DAS LEIDEN ANDERER BETRACHTEN (Regarding the Pain Others)

based on the essay by Susan Sontag by Ayla Pierrot Arendt
Directed by: Ayla Pierrot Arendt

Internationally renowned video artist and director Ayla Pierrot Arendt explores the manipulability of reality. Together with the ensemble, she recounts journeys through the crisis regions of our time, as captured by war photographers, peace activists, and influencers—in search of true reality. How does one find something like objectivity today, when it is constantly being put to the test between falsification and reality? Who creates and who views the images of suffering? What purpose do they serve—and for whom?

The premiere will take place on March 21, 2026 at Depot 2 at Schauspiel Köln.

Additional performance dates: 24.3., 1. & 22.4.2026

FORCE MAJEURE (Höhere Gewalt)

German-language premiere based on the film by Ruben Östlund
Adapted for the stage by Tim Price
Translated into German by Linda Kokkores
Directed by Fritzi Wartenberg

With dark humor, the classic image of a modern family is put to the test: Parents and children are on a ski vacation, whose idyllic atmosphere comes to an abrupt end when an avalanche rolls in while the family is having breakfast on the hotel terrace. The catastrophe fails to strike, but while the mother shields her children, the father instinctively runs for cover, putting his marriage to a severe test.

The German-language premiere will take place on March 20, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at the Schauspielhaus of Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray)

by Oscar Wilde, adapted by Heiki Riipinen
using the translation by Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer

Director Heiki Riipinen, a former participant in the WORX International Young Directors Program at the Berliner Ensemble, brings his own adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel to the stage as a modern mythological play. Between desire and control, between self-creation and self-loss, he and his team ask the question: What does it cost to be oneself?

The premiere will take place on March 19, 2026, at 8 p.m. at the Neues Haus venue at the Berliner Ensemble.