News

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.

THE OUTLAWS

based on the novel Outlawed by Anna North

Director Anne Sophie Kapsner is presenting her production DIE GESETZLOSEN (THE OUTLAWS) as part of the Week of Young Actors (Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste) in Bensheim.

The production by Theaterhaus Jena is based on a true story about female outlaws in the Wild West.

The guest performance will take place on March 19, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at the Parktheater Bensheim.
TICKETS

Together with Marie Lina Smyrek (script) and Jana Döhlinger (director), Canberk Köktürk (script) receives the 2026 Grimme Prize for smypathisch – die show (btf for ZDF/funk) in the Entertainment category.

In the interview show “smypathisch – die Show”, host Marie Lina Smyrek meets prominent guests from the fields of politics, music, television, and social media, who have to face confrontational questions and mini-challenges.

From the jury’s statement:
“smypathisch – die Show” is the funniest “funny interview show” currently available in the German-speaking world. It is a particularly successful and groundbreaking combination of television craftsmanship and internet culture.

The Grimme Prize is considered one of the most prestigious awards for outstanding television and television-like productions in German-speaking countries.

The award ceremony for the 62nd Grimme Prize will take place on April 24, 2026, in Marl.

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR.
A (ONE NIGHT) STAND-UP SHOW

Orit Nahmias is coming to Hanover with her new stand-up show, which premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theater and in which she explores the fear of death and the joy of life. With brutal honesty and self-irony, she delves into the tangled intersection of love, sex, trauma, and politics—fully aware of the explosive nature of these topics.

The guest performance as part of the Universen festival will take place on March 12, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at the Cumberlandsche Bühne (Niedersächsisches Staatstheaters Hannover).

DER FISKUS (The Treasury)

by Felicia Zeller (excerpts)
Directed by Natalia Sinelnikova

Natalia Sinelnikova’s fast-paced and highly comical production of DER FISKUS (The Treasury), which premiered at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, is coming to the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam as a guest performance!
The setting for the action is a tax office, where employees have to deal with letters of complaint, incorrectly filled out forms, and stapled receipts, leading to internal conflicts that escalate into absurdity.

The performances will take place on March 10 and 12, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. in the Reithalle Box of the Hans Otto Theater.

BIRTH FACTORY. AN ELECTRONIC-BAROQUE CONCERT PERFORMANCE

By and with Anke Retzlaff
Text by Kathrin Liess

Following its huge success during the Schall&Rausch festival at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Neuköllner Oper is presenting the production once again.

Performance dates: March 10–12, 2026, at 8 p.m.

 

FOMO
Liebeserklärung an die Angst unserer Zeit (“Declaration of love to the fear of our times”)

by Ran Chai Bar-zvi
Director & Stage Design: Ran Chai Bar-zvi
Video art: Adam Kaplan

FOMO – “fear of missing out” – is a phenomenon of our time, which is characterized by constant pressure to optimize and increase productivity. Am I missing out on something? Isn’t the life of others, as I constantly see it, much more exciting, productive, simply better than mine? What else do I need to do? Why am I not part of it? Am I not interesting enough?
In his first work in Austria, author, director, and stage designer Ran Chai Bar-zvi uses tongue-in-cheek humor to declare his love for an omnipresent feeling and transfer it to the theater: from the Dunkelkammer, he lets us peek with fascinated concern at the big stage, the beating heart of the Volkstheater. But perhaps the real jewel is to be found in the small Avenue after all?

The world premiere takes place on March 5th, 2026, at 8 p.m. at Dunkelkammer (Volkstheater Wien).

DIE EINGEBORENEN VON MARIA BLUT

Play based on the novel by Maria Lazar
Stage adaptation and directed by Martina Gredler

The idyllic village of Maria Blut with its pilgrimage chapel is a few hours by train from Vienna. It is the 1930s, the era of the corporate state and civil war, Dollfuß is chancellor, and the inhabitants of the “Austrian Lourdes” are in turmoil. The canning factory closes, and the boss, Schellbach, tries to persuade the population to invest in his new product, Raumkraft. Many give their last savings for it. When Schellbach shoots himself during a folk festival, a tremendous dynamic develops: the alleged culprits are quickly found—and it becomes extremely dangerous for them.

The premiere will take place on February 26, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.