Name: The Rise and Fall of Mr. René Benko
Start: 2026-05-13T19:30:00
Location: Schauspiel Köln

Tina Prichenfried

Calle Fuhr

Bühnen Köln

A man in a white shirt, sleeves rolled up, a leather cartridge belt over his shoulder. He is about to fall backward; his knees at a 90-degree angle, his right arm outstretched, the rifle slipping from his grip: Robert Capa's "The Falling Soldier" from 1936 in the Spanish Civil War, supposedly taken at the moment of death. Initially, photographs were "a representation of something real, as irrefutable as no verbal description ever could be," wrote the American author Susan Sontag in her essay "Looking at the Suffering of Others" (2003). The ideal of war photography is to show the "true face" of war and to bear witness: This is how it was, this is what happened! And today, when AI-generated images are almost indistinguishable from real photographs? The internationally active video artist and director Ayla Pierrot Arendt explores the manipulability of reality. With the ensemble, she tells stories of journeys through the crisis regions of our time, captured by war photographers, peace activists, and influencers – in search of the truly authentic. How can one find objectivity today when it is constantly being tested between falsification and reality? Who creates and who views these images of suffering? What purpose do they serve – and for whom?

Looking at the suffering of others

Schauspiel Köln

BABY, DON'T GIVE UP is a talk series at the Schauspiel Köln for and with people who don't want to lose their nerve and hope.

Baby, don't give up

Carlswerk

Austrian prison poet, ladies' man, journalist, convicted murderer: Jack Unterweger was many things, and he played numerous roles throughout his life. During his first imprisonment, for the murder of an 18-year-old girl, he published his first novel, which brought him immediate fame. A petition for his release was signed by, among others, Elfriede Jelinek, Ernst Jandl, and Günter Grass. After 15 years in prison, he was released: Unterweger became a prime example of "successful rehabilitation." But in 1994, he was convicted a second time—for the murder of nine women. UNTERWEGER explores this irrational fascination—an evening about lust and compassion, attraction and disgust, judgment and mercy.

Unterweger

Arda never knew his father. The only thing connecting him to him is a small black mark under his left eye—his "father mark." Arda is barely in his early twenties, lying in intensive care with organ failure, and time is running out. Time he has wasted with his friends and time that the German authorities have taken from him. His mother and sister haven't spoken a word to each other in ten years. Now they meet daily in the hospital, and Arda is literally caught in the middle. In the time he has left, he writes a letter to his father, Metin. He wants him to know everything about the life of the broken family in Germany that he left behind to return to Turkey. He wants him to no longer be unable to know who Arda was. In his acclaimed debut novel, Necati Öziri weaves a family saga in which mother, daughter, and son try to overcome loss and—even without passports—find their own place in Germany. Bassam Ghazi, together with people from Cologne, creates a fast-paced evening about farewell, longing, migration and family.

Father's mark

"Perhaps we must finally learn to truly understand that the fabric of our civilization itself is woven from fire and smoke." (WG Sebald) It all begins at an altitude of 4,000 meters: A stream of US bombers, 600 meters wide and 30 kilometers long, moves toward a German city. Below, bombs fall, along with the parachutes of a bomber crew, low-flying aircraft, and flak towers. Far below, houses and streets where staggering people are "grilled" in boiling tar. Air-raid shelters, cellars, chaos—an unimaginable horror scenario. A mother searches for her son, who has already met his death as an anti-aircraft gunner; a young woman is buried alive with a stranger and raped by him beneath the rubble. Gert Ledig's novel REVENGE takes a cold and unsentimental look at the destructive violence of an Allied air raid in July 1944. The city in question remains nameless—but could well be Cologne. Here, too, after the night of May 30-31, 1942, only the cathedral stood amidst a vast landscape of rubble. The book was published in 1956, long after Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass had begun depicting the postwar reality of West Germany. It was soon forgotten. To this day, the trauma of the air raids remains largely unaddressed, while the haphazard postwar architecture of city centers continues to silently bear witness to the horrors of that time. Director Sebastian Baumgarten stages Ledig's defiant challenge to warmongering rhetoric of "fatherland, heroism, tradition, faith, and honor" as a world premiere for the Schauspiel Köln (Cologne Theatre).

retribution

The most famous murder in Greek tragedy takes place in a bathtub. Clytemnestra, Queen of Argos, murders her husband Agamemnon after his victorious return from the Trojan War—in revenge for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia for favorable winds. But Clytemnestra's triumph is short-lived. Orestes, her own son, stabs her with his sword to atone for Agamemnon's death. From then on, Orestes is hunted by the Erinyes, avenging spirits who follow him from the temple at Delphi to Athens. There, he is put on trial before the goddess Athena. The jury ultimately acquits him. But is this victory of the law over the principle of blood vengeance, which has become part of literary history, also a victory for justice? Australian director Adena Jacobs certainly questions this. She stages THE ORESTETY in a version that focuses on the crimes against Iphigenia and Clytemnestra. What about the rage that remains after the murder of daughter and mother? The anger that cannot be appeased by Athena's exhortation, "Women, do not be angry"? Adena Jacobs works in and on the neglected spaces of antiquity, combining acting with dance and video art into a feminist Gesamtkunstwerk.

The Oresteia

Can 135 days fit into 12 hours? Wolfram Lotz's book "Holy Scripture I" is about the wildly radical, 135-day attempt to capture life, both large and small, as completely and directly as possible using all available literary means. With this poetic document of a project that embraces pure excess, actor Uwe Schmieder embarks on a twelve-hour reading frenzy in the grotto. As part of the "Mülheim Night" event, he and the author, along with instant soup, his record collection, an espresso machine, and an audience free to come and go as they please, will plow through 900 pages of truly contemporary writing from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. – until total exhaustion?

Holy Scripture I

A gruesome discovery on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne raises many questions: the body of young activist Luise washes ashore. Detective Clara and her colleague Hans begin their murder investigation and find themselves entangled in a web of environmental pollution, online threats, and encrypted corporate data. They are working in murky waters until they finally uncover explosive information about a major regional chemical company.

The water from Cologne is good

"You tell us when to sit and when to stand. You tell us when to move and when to be still for a moment. You tell us when we're allowed to get up from the table. You teach us to say please. And you teach us to say thank you. You teach us how to look nice and clean. You explain to us that there are bad people in the world. That monsters don't really exist. That words are just words." THAT NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY turns the world upside down: A chorus of children between the ages of 8 and 14 becomes the main character. They have only recently been thrown into life, and immediately they find rules and values ​​there. But the children turn the tables. They reverse statements, reject them, and reformulate them. And the longer you listen to this set of values ​​with the reversed source, the more audibly an unspoken "Why?" enters the stage: The questioning of what is—and what could just as easily be different! Deeply moving and exceptionally funny. THAT NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY was first produced by Victoria Deluxe in Ghent, Belgium, in 2007 and has since been performed in many countries and languages. For the Cologne premiere, the text will be updated for a group of Cologne children. Tim Etchells is an internationally renowned writer, director, and artist. He is particularly well-known as the leader of the performance group Forced Entertainment.

That Night Follows Day

WAR AND PEACE is the title of Calle Fuhr's new investigative stage essay, created in collaboration with the independent media outlet CORRECTIV. Based on journalistic research, the performance recounts the rise of Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian developments of the last 25 years in Russia, and the war against Ukraine. At the same time, Fuhr turns his attention to Germany: to the energy policy of recent decades, the dependence on Russian gas, and the resulting supply crisis. Current rearmament measures, the immense state spending on defense, and the debate surrounding the reintroduction of conscription also come into focus. WAR AND PEACE demonstrates how geopolitical decisions are changing our daily lives – and poses the question of how Germany defines its defense capabilities and its future security policy.

War and Peace

Are we living in a simulation? With quirky wit, media artist, director, lecture-performer, and self-proclaimed nerd Arne Vogelgesang journeys through the history of simulation in his new solo show. Always interested in how people interact with digital media phenomena, he traverses worlds of oracles, digital doubles, experimental systems, and training devices. Arriving in our present day, everything seems simulable: the movements of elementary particles and planets, global weather systems, language, traffic flow, consumer behavior, material fatigue, sleep patterns, and war in all its forms. In doing so, he touches upon the contemporary form of an age-old skepticism about the status of reality. And where better to answer this question of reality versus simulation, of appearance versus being, than in the theater!

Twin worlds

Even 100 years after its publication, Arthur Schnitzler's novella FRÄULEIN ELSE has lost none of its explosive power: During her summer vacation, the young Else T. is asked by her parents to request urgently needed money from the art dealer Dorsday – the only way to save her indebted father from prison and the family from social ostracism. Dorsday recognizes the hopelessness of Else's situation and uses it for a dark game: He will only transfer the money if he is allowed to look at her naked for fifteen minutes… Director Leonie Böhm presents Schnitzler's novella, which is consistently told from Else's inner perspective, as a solo performance with actress Julia Riedler. The two explore Else's stream of consciousness about the abuse of power and the commodification of female bodies, consistently bringing it into the here and now. The daily newspaper Der Standard reported a "triumph" after the premiere, while the news agency APA spoke of "a magnificent balancing act between despair, thoughtfulness, defiance, and a good dose of wit. FRÄULEIN ELSE is top-notch entertainment that never loses sight of its serious core. It's hard to imagine anyone doing it better than Böhm and Riedler." And so it's no surprise that Julia Riedler was named Actress of the Year 2025 by Theater heute for her portrayal of Else.

Miss Else

Since the insolvency of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, Austria's once richest man has also become a household name in Germany: René Benko dominated the headlines for months in 2024 with the collapse of his real estate company, Signa Holding. It became the biggest bankruptcy in the history of the Second Republic of Austria. Even millions in German state aid evaporated almost completely. Numerous cities now face the threat of construction scars lasting for years. The path to this seems to have been paved by an impenetrable mix of ruthlessness, billionaire cronyism, and a flawed financial system. In January 2025, Benko was taken into custody in his hometown of Innsbruck. For months, director Calle Fuhr and DOSSIER collaborated to unravel the story of the rise and fall of the "miracle worker" Benko. The result is a unique theatrical evening somewhere between stand-up, TED Talk, and lecture-performance, which, due to high demand, had to be moved from the smallest to the largest venue at the Volkstheater in Vienna. After guest performances at the Berliner Ensemble and an invitation to the Radikal jung Festival in Munich, Calle Fuhr's entertaining solo show now comes to the stage of the Schauspiel Köln in an updated version.