Theatre for non-German speakers

At a time when everything seems to be slipping away from us humans, when the world seems to be on the brink, when violence, natural disasters and seemingly unsolvable moral contradictions are constantly shaking us, the transnational KULA Compagnie deals with the GAP, with what separates us. What separates us from each other, what separates us from peace, from nature and from an ideal society in which humanity pulls together.

Five people with different cultural, religious and social backgrounds find themselves in a closed room. They don't speak the same language, they don't pray to the same God, if at all, they don't have the same income, their lives barely overlap. They have never met each other. But they have a task that they can only solve together, and only when they have succeeded in doing so are they allowed to leave the room again: they have to agree democratically on ten points that should form the core of the new naturalisation law for Europe (and for Switzerland in the bilateral follow-up). All means are permitted: discussion, competition, music, seduction, philosophy and play. The only important thing is that the result must be unanimous.

With artists from different countries, the KULA Compagnie has been playfully exploring the question of how we want to live together in a multicultural society for many years. In a long-term collaboration with the company, schauspiel erlangen also wants to explore the multicultural identity of the city of Erlangen. The KULA Compagnie was awarded the prize of the International Theatre Institute Germany (ITI) in 2024.

Death = the end, isn't it? Is there perhaps a state, a world after all? Even an architecture of the afterlife with entrance gates, transition zones and the shimmering expanses of infinity? What happens when the main switch is flicked and the light goes out? Does the soul really separate from the body or are these comfort stories of the living from the pain of incomprehensibility? How to live on in despair? Does hope have a place? Where do we even find ourselves? In an empty parquet floor? In the hospital room of an intensive care unit? In the in-between realm of doubt and speculation? In Beyond, only one thing is clear: two people wrestle with mortality while the space around them merges into a cosmic world of sound and light.

Andreas Schäfer, known for his novel Das Gartenzimmer (The garden room), recently published Die Schuhe meines Vaters (My Father's Shoes) about the death of his father. An installation evening about final questions and the hellishly difficult art of saying goodbye.

A young hotel owner is holding out in a former spa town. She hasn't had any guests there for a long time, because the fires in the neighbouring forest rage more fiercely and longer every summer than the year before.

Unexpectedly, a young woman and her daughter turn up in the deserted village. For the owner of the hotel, the visit is both a welcome change and a cause for concern: something seems to be wrong with the strangers. Why are they fleeing to a place like this? Can the secretive woman with her mute daughter be trusted? Aren't the heat and isolation too dangerous for the child?

As the forest burns and protests take place at the climate camp nearby, the two women grow closer. Until a strange caller enquires about the visitor and questions the honesty of their relationship. Franziska Gänsler's atmospheric novel becomes the basis for an evening that combines music, theatre and dance to tell a story about the pressing issues of our time.