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Ayad Akhtar & Daniel Kehlmann: Art, AI and the Stories We Tell
Moderated by Jeffrey Goldberg

On March 5, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at Deutsches Theater Berlin.
Welcome remarks by Daniel Benjamin, President, American Academy in Berlin; Karla Mäder, Head of Dramaturgy, Deutsches Theater Berlin.

What is the role of art in an age of technological change? How does artificial intelligence change the way we create and understand stories? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Ayad Akhtar and acclaimed German author Daniel Kehlmann discuss the intersection of art, technology and human experience.
Also, in his latest play MCNEAL (European premiere on March 1, 2025 at the Burgtheater Vienna) Ayad Akhtar explores these questions and reflects on topics such as authenticity, power and morality. Read more about the production DER FALL MCNEAL here.

The conversation is held in English without German translation.
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MCNEAL (dt. DER FALL MCNEAL)
by Ayad Akhtar
German translation: Daniel Kehlmann
Director: Jan Bosse
Starring Joachim Meyerhoff as Jacob McNeal

Jacob McNeal is a successful, unscrupulous writer almost manically hoping to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. His liver is failing, his son is threatening him with a public scandal and his fascination with artificial intelligence could shut down his career.
In his new play, Ayad Akhtar questions the machinations of the literary world and the influence of AI on his profession as a writer and reflects on the issues of greed, power and intellectual appropriation.

The European premiere will take place on March 1, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Burgtheater Vienna statt.
Information & tickets

JEEPS by Nora Abdel-Maksoud
Directed by: Fritzi Wartenberg

The job center has a new assignment: with the help of an inheritance lottery, assets are expropriated and passed on to those in need, all in the name of an equal society! Here, in the overcrowded waiting room of such a job center, the long-term unemployed Maude meets Silke – and a surprising complicity begins.

With JEEPS, Nora Abdel-Maksoud addresses the topic of equal opportunities and social justice and uses humor to question a system which seemingly keeps on reproducing privileges and disadvantages.

The premiere takes place on February 26, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at Schauspiel Köln (Depot 2)
Dates & tickets

SIRENS CALL
Directors, screenplay: Lina Sieckmann & Miri Ian Gossing
Production: filmfaust
DE, NL, 121 min, 2025

In their feature-length debut, Miri Ian Gossing and Lina Sieckmann dive into the merfolk subculture with performance artist and mermaid Una. Genre elements, fiction and documentary, self-care, political activism and self-chosen identities flow into one another.
Dates & tickets

“Hysteria” is the name of the film that knocked many out of their seats at the Berlinale. And finally catapults its director and author Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay into the ranks of the most exciting young cinema talents.“ – Carolin Ströbele, ZEIT (quote orig. in German)

HYSTERIA
Director, screenplay: Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
Production: filmfaust
105 min, DE, 2025

When a burned Quran is found on a film set, the shoot takes a dark turn and the crew are thrown into turmoil. Caught in the crossfire, an intern, Elif, is drawn into a dangerous game of secrets, accusations and lies…
Dates & tickets

EGAL / ELLEN BABIĆ
by Marius von Mayenburg
Director: Thomas Jonigk

Double premiere on February 15, 2025 at Burgtheatre Vienna (Akademietheater)

EGAL
Dates & tickets

 

ELLEN BABIĆ
Dates & tickets

BIRTH FACTORY – an interdisciplinary concert performance about giving birth and being born
as part of the Schall-und-Rausch-Festival of the Komische Oper Berlin

Between intimacy and social appropriation: together with musicians Peter Florian Berndt (lute, electronics) and Dominik Tremel (harpsichord, electronics), Anke Retzlaff (viola da gamba, performance) embarks on a radically sensual journey with texts by Kathrin Liess and testimonials from women in childbirth to explore one of the most primal themes: birth. On the border between club night and performance, baroque and electronics, text and original sound, pregnant bodies become a dance floor for society.

February 14, 2025 at 8:30 p.m.  &  February 16, 2025 at 9:00 p.m.
In SchwuZ Queer Club, Rollbergstraße 26,12053 Berlin

THE BARBARIANS
by Jerry Lieblich
Director: Paul Lazar

Imaginative, hilarious, word-drunk, THE BARBARIANS  examines power of words and words of power: what makes an order legitimate? Who proclaims a King and what is a substance of a King’s speech as such? Is it the declaration of war or the war itself — what if a President declared a war, but the words wouldn’t work?

Sara Holdren, theater critic at Vulture, listed The Barbarians as one of 18 plays and musicals to see in this upcoming season!

The world premiere will take place on February 14, 2025 at Ellen Stewart Theatre, New York.
Information & tickets

THE DAY OF THE BEARS (dt. DER TAG DER BÄREN)
A research trip by Ana Trpenoska
In the company of les dramaturx

Winter of 2023: together with Macedonian author Ana Trpenoska, les dramaturx travel to a national park in North Macedonia to visit one of the largest free-living bear populations in Europe. Once there, several surprises await them…

The world premiere will take place on February 14, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. in the Schauspielhaus Hamburg/ MalerSaal.
Tickets & info

ANNA by Ella Hickson
Concept by Ella Hickson, Max Ringham & Ben Ringham
German translation: Lisa Wegener
Director: Walter Meierjohann

East Berlin, 1968: a party in Anna and Hans’ apartment.
Hans has been promoted and guests come over to toast his success. Hans’ new superior also turns up, and with him – lies about Anna’s veiled past…
Written by playwright Ella Hickson and developed in collaboration with sound designers Ben and Max Ringham, ANNA unfolds with the suspense of a spy thriller. The audience follows the play via headphones and from the perspective of the main character.

The German premiere will take place on February 8, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Theater Neubrandenburg.
Tickets & information