Artelize - Exploring Diversity and Depth at Staatstheater Mainz's 2025 Season
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Exploring Diversity and Depth at Staatstheater Mainz's 2025 Season

The Staatstheater Mainz is hosting a diverse set of performances in 2025 that delve into themes ranging from displacement and identity crises to family dynamics and dystopian futures. Featuring plays and musicals such as 'Non-Existent', 'The Fall of the House of Usher', and 'The End of Eddy', the theater offers a variety of narratives that explore human resilience, societal issues, and personal struggles. With an impressive roster of talented performers and creative works, these events promise to leave a lasting impact.

May 8, 2025
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1. Non-Existent
Three women - grandmother, daughter and granddaughter - are sitting together at dinner in a cozy apartment in a European city. They talk about their shopping, the upcoming weekend trip and the school work of the youngest, as if they had always lived here. But they only moved into this house a few months ago, where they are known as the Ukrainian "refugees". They describe themselves more as "temporarily displaced persons". It seems almost inconceivable that the three of them stormed out of the house under a bomb alert or were stuck in a traffic jam at the gates of Europe, on their way to an uncertain future.
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Jan 2 - May 23, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

2. The Fall of the House of Usher
The emotionally torn Roderick Usher is the last branch of a degenerate noble family and is at the centre of this dark story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is initially a dialogue between Roderick Usher and the first-person narrator William, who finds his friend in a worryingly absent-minded state on his country estate. Roderick's twin sister also lives in the house. But for William, her presence is like a ghostly suspicion - especially when Roderick declares her dead. This huge, demonic house, which seems to be tearing apart in the middle, seems to have a malicious power over the souls that live in it. What family history is inscribed in the house?
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Feb 14 - Jun 7, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

3. Beacon
When Colm and his wife Bonnie return to his father's hometown, an island off West Cork, Ireland, for the first time in many years, everything seems different at first: His mother Beiv, a famous visual artist who lives a secluded life on the island, has demolished half of the house and decided to only install glass walls in order to deliberately put herself on display. People in the village are talking anyway. Since the mysterious death of her husband, who died at sea ten years ago, she has been accused of murder and is constantly under surveillance. And her son's visit holds a few surprises for Beiv too. Colm has kept his wedding to art student Bonnie a secret from her and otherwise seems to have no interest in a harmonious reunion. Old wounds are quickly reopened. The sudden appearance of his old childhood friend Donal finally causes the situation to escalate. The past draws everyone into a whirlpool of old and new injuries, accusations of guilt and unrequited love.
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Feb 22 - May 26, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

4. The End of Eddy
Even as a child, Eddy Bellegueule felt that he would find it difficult to live up to the expectations of those around him. His world is a small village in Picardy in northern France, and his upbringing in a working-class family is marked by poverty, violence, and social exclusion. Eddy's behavior, which is perceived as feminine, makes him an outsider long before he can discover his own homosexuality, and the constant rejection of his fellow human beings and lack of acceptance from his family weigh heavily on him. Despite the adverse circumstances, Eddy looks for ways to escape his surroundings and find his own identity. Édouard Louis' autofictional debut novel tells the story of escaping an oppressive childhood with ruthlessness and sociological precision.
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Mar 21 - Jul 2, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

5. The Addams Family
America's most bizarre family is back with a new story: The Addams live a life in their house in Central Park that is anything but ordinary, full of darkness, pain and death. But that could soon change: Wednesday, the daughter of the family, has grown up and falls in love with a handsome, intelligent young man from a respectable family - a man her parents have never met before. As if that wasn't bad enough, Wednesday lets her father in on her secret and begs him not to tell her mother. Now Gomez Addams has to do something he has never done before - keep a secret from his beloved wife Morticia. And the next catastrophe is just around the corner: That evening the families are supposed to get to know each other and Wednesday just wants a completely normal evening without any unusual incidents, but everything turns out differently than planned...
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Mar 22 - Jul 1, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

6. 4.48 Psychosis
4:48 a.m. Every 24 hours, in this darkest hour of the night, the effects of the psychotropic drug cocktail wear off - until the next dose 72 minutes later. Every night at this time, the drug veil lifts from the tormented consciousness and they return, the intrusive dark thoughts that threaten to suppress everything else. Nightmare visions. Feelings of hopelessness and self-hatred. Fragments of memories: of conversations with an absent lover. With a therapist whose professional distance seems downright cruel.
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Apr 26 - Jul 4, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

7. Planet B
40 million years in the future: A humanoid species re-enacts the legendary myth of how their ancestors, the primitive species Homo sapiens, disappeared from Earth and ended up on Planet B: Their story begins on Earth in the 21st century, where the climate catastrophe is raging unchecked and many species have already become extinct. Then aliens suddenly appear and tell humanity that "Project Earth" unfortunately cannot be extended. Humans have dominated and exploited the Earth for too long.
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May 16 - Jul 5, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

8. Turandot
Princess Turandot never wants to belong to a man. To deter her suitors, she has passed a cruel law: anyone who wants to marry her must first solve three riddles. If he fails, he is executed. Countless men have already died this way. Prince Calaf also feels attracted to Turandot. Ignoring the urgent warnings of his father and Liù, who loves him selflessly, he faces the riddles - and is able to solve them. But instead of taking Turandot as his wife against her will, he now gives her a riddle of his own...
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May 17 - Jun 19, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

9. The Stowaway
The action of the play takes place on board a Danish packet boat that trades on the nearby coasts. Shortly before departure, a man jumps into the harbor to escape from his pursuers. Carl, the captain's son, gives the stranger protection by hiding him in the hold. But the presence of the fugitive, who, as it soon turns out, is a Jewish doctor, cannot be kept secret on the small boat for long...
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Jun 5, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Mainz · Staatstheater Mainz

10. The Servant of Two Masters
"One job doesn't get you very far these days. You need two for a life. That's the so-called flexibility that everyone is talking about these days. They do it so that at the end of the day we don't know where we are at. But two paychecks mean two meals, that's all I can think of right now." Beatrice wants to collect her recently deceased brother's money from his debtors, but nobody takes her seriously as a woman. So she disguises herself as her dead brother in order to get the money she is entitled to. To gain credibility and support, she also hires the servant Truffaldino. However, he has also taken a job with Florindo because he cannot otherwise make ends meet on his salary. What he doesn't know is that Florindo is Beatrice's lover and is on the run because he is said to have killed Beatrice's brother because Beatrice's brother wanted to prevent his relationship with his sister. Chaos and comedy of errors are inevitable...
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Jun 7, 2025
Staatstheater Mainz

Other · TBA

Conclusion
Staatstheater Mainz’s 2025 season illuminates the power of theater to reflect and challenge societal norms, encourage introspection, and entertain. With a rich variety of themes—from the complexities of familial relationships to the exploration of identity and existential questions—these performances invite audiences to experience and appreciate the diversity of human stories. As the curtains rise on each of these carefully curated events, theater-goers are offered not just entertainment but a meaningful dialogue with the world around them.
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