Name: Ah! – A portrait of Kleist
Start: 2026-05-12T20:00:00
Location: Schauspiel Köln

Lukas Bangerter

Bühnen Köln

A table, an armchair, a bottle. And a glass of wine, which the waiter serves to the guest: that's the starting point. But who is serving whom? And who is serving whom? Who ultimately pays the bill, or who cuts someone else's? In the work of British writer and director Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment), power dynamics are explored in numerous variations – and the longer the scene lasts, the more sinister the humor becomes. In this sense, master and servant explore the manifold pitfalls of hierarchical constellations. Following its German-language premiere at the 2024 Vienna Festival, the table, armchair, and wine are now being moved to Depot 3. The suspense mounts as to who will ultimately foot the bill in this slapstick comedy.

The bill

Carlswerk

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

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

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

"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

"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

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

Imagine the world were a village. Imagine peace reigned there. Now imagine night falling over the houses and the streetlights shining. Picture it clearly. Behind the windows, people were eating their bread and drinking their tea. And the children were reading peacefully in bed before their father kissed them and their mother turned out the light. Now imagine a shadow creeping across the deserted village square. And there, in the greenhouse, plants grew menacingly—and on the altar lay an ominous book containing holy scriptures. And a package full of uniforms appeared as if from nowhere before the fence. And then a strange song sounded in the sky. Picture it clearly—like a crack in the firmament. Imagine it drawing people from their beds, and together they gazed up at the sky. And with hearts pounding in their chests, they wondered what was approaching them. An angel? A drone? A deadly missile that burns and destroys everything? We're at the beginning of a great story. There is no fatherland and no reason for murder and war. And everyone lives only in the here and now. Imagine that. It's easy if you try. Welcome to IMAGINE.

Imagine

Ensemble member Jonas Dumke's personal solo performance is a tribute to the tormented spirit and linguistic artistry of Heinrich von Kleist. Through quotations from his letters, novellas, and dramas, he creates a dazzling kaleidoscope of a poet whose character and biography both fueled his great creativity and made life and work difficult – right up to his tragic end. From the young soldier to the literary outsider, the evening paints a portrait of a mind yearning for its fulfillment.

Ah! – A portrait of Kleist

In issue #8 of GROTTENSCHLECHT – the format in which the ensemble and co-workers take monthly space for spontaneous, raw theatrical surprises – the synergy effects are rocking: actor Benjamin Höppner will present the 96 Theses of the Schauspiel Köln (Cologne Theatre) and relate them to Martin Luther's 95 Theses. His reflection, delivered in a velvet suit, on the theatre as a potential church of the 21st century will be accompanied by the atmospherically unsettling noise-rock band InternationalWaterBabies, half of whose members are theatre box office staff. Hallelujah!

Awful #8

The clang of the tram at Neumarkt. The smell of currywurst and nail salons. Shopping, sightseeing, selfies. Cologne's city center, full of expectations and contradictions: How you dress. How you speak. How you move. Who belongs. And who doesn't. A glance that goes unreturned. Sleeping spots under awnings. What stories lie hidden in a place where so many people pass by, linger, live, or are driven away every day? Between shop windows and concrete, DOWNTOWN PARADISE is growing – urban space becomes a stage. The youth club POLYLUX explores how perception, empathy, and responsibility are negotiated in public space – where proximity and distance merge, where stillness and movement meet, where visibility becomes a question. Inspired by the everyday life of Cologne's city center, POLYLUX invites you to retell the story of public space. A glimpse of what usually remains hidden. A listening among the sounds. An attempt to feel the city before understanding it.