Name: Antigone
Start: 2027-01-29T19:30:00
Location: Schauspiel Köln

Lies Pauwels

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

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

Schauspiel Köln

"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

Throughout his life, Goethe worked on his magnum opus, FAUST, the drama he uniquely called a "tragedy" among his works. Enigmatic and luminous, it stands there in epic scope—a seemingly endless succession of scenes and reflections. What holds this tragedy together at its core? There is Faust, the eternally restless one, who sees the world as prey and time as a pledge. There is Mephistopheles, the antithesis, literally in Faust's shadow. There is Gretchen, innocent and beautiful in the face of ruin. And there is the light that filters through all the cracks in fate. The majority of the tragedy takes place in the dead of night. This darkness is repeatedly pierced by fire and flashes of light—like the flash of a photograph. In 1928, the Russian photographer Alexander Rodchenko described photography as a "struggle between eternity and the moment" and continued: "With its emergence, there can no longer be a general, unchanging image. A person is not merely a unity; they are multifaceted and dialectical." “Stay a while, my moment.” Kay Voges stages FAUST as precisely this struggle and, together with live photographer Marcel Urlaub, transforms the stage space into both a room of light and a darkroom.

fist

August Strindberg attends a rehearsal of his new play, in which his ex-wife and (to make matters worse) her new girlfriend are also appearing. The evening unfolds into a psychological chamber drama, in which Strindberg wavers between rage and vulnerability, questioning his misogyny and paranoid delusions. A broken man who actually seeks understanding, but instead alienates those around him. Themes such as gender roles and power dynamics in relationships are central to the work of Markus Öhrn, a Swedish director. His award-winning productions are characterized by a distinctive aesthetic: the performers wear papier-mâché masks, voices are acoustically distorted, movements are extremely slowed down – all with great wit and humor.

Chamber Play #1 Jealousy | The Night of the Lesbians

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

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.

Downtown Paradise

Glockengasse

Germany is taking on one trillion euros in new debt! For bridges, the railways, the armed forces – in short, for the entire Federal Republic. This was announced and passed by the Bundestag in early 2025. The seemingly unwritten law of the debt brake was relaxed, and the endless debates about the "black zero" (balanced budget), which ultimately led to the collapse of the coalition government, suddenly vanished into thin air. But where did this trillion euros come from? To whom does Germany actually owe money? Or, put another way: How does monetary policy work in the 21st century? Together with the economic experts from FiscalFuture, theater director Calle Fuhr leaves the realm of daily political debates and dedicates his new stage exploration to the schools of thought that shape political action. Playful, humorous, and accessible, Calle Fuhr invites the audience to reflect on economics. Because that's where the major levers for a livable future lie.

Monopoly – The Revenge

“The storytellers go on, the auto industry goes on, the workers go on, the governments go on, the rock 'n' roll singers go on, the prices go on, the paper goes on, the animals and trees go on, day and night go on, the moon rises, the sun rises, eyes open, doors open, mouths open, people speak.” And speaking it is: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann! Enfant terrible of the West German literary scene, run over from the right when he looked to the left. What begins as reflection on his own life soon becomes the furious stroll of a young man through the streets of Cologne: West German post-war stifling atmosphere in his sights, armed with a tape recorder. His constant companion is his idiosyncratic poetic mind. In sprawling cascades of hatred, Brinkmann captures the horror of the world, the city, the street with a devilish laugh – in angular beauty. "The Words Are Evil" is the title of a 1974 WDR radio play, written, narrated, and edited by Brinkmann himself. Director and set designer Wolfgang Menardi brings this breathless march through 1970s Cologne to the stage, enriched by poems from Brinkmann's work. A merciless look at the city of Cologne, full of humor and well-hidden beauty between concrete buildings and tiled floors.

The words are evil

If urban planning were a concert, what would the livable city of the future sound like? How does one sing of "bridge renovation" and "transformation," how does one intone "shading strategy"? And which voices herald ecological change? We speak with people from the construction industry and urban development, with economists, futurologists, and activists about the existing plans for a sustainable Cologne—and about the resistance they encounter. From these firsthand accounts emerges a music theater piece by Cologne residents for Cologne, a vocal concert for three actresses, two Cologne choirs, and a city of the future. "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one to come," says Johannes Brahms in his "Requiem," which, sung by the Cologne Cathedral Choir, resonates from the crumbling city walls. Director Anna-Sophie Mahler specializes in weaving together research material and music. She became known for her production of "Mittelreich" at the Munich Kammerspiele, which was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2016. Most recently, her production of Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" at the Volkstheater Wien, featuring the band Calexico live on stage, was a resounding success.

Requiem for a dilapidated bridge

Kolumba

Life! That's what Franz Biberkopf wants. Disoriented, he stumbles through a metropolis that threatens to engulf him. Between pub crawls and urban escapades, Biberkopf, a perpetrator of violence against women, dreams of dominance, self-empowerment, and big business. He becomes entangled in sexual adventures, petty crime, and a diabolical dependence on the crook Reinhold. Power struggles, overconfidence, and violence cost him his right arm—and ultimately, the life of his lover, Mieze.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Antigone defies the law. She does what Creon, the newly crowned ruler of Thebes, has forbidden under penalty of death: she buries her brother Polynices, whose body had been left outside the city to be devoured by birds. Creon is furious at this fierce affront. In his eyes, Polynices is a traitor who waged a bloody civil war against Thebes and killed his own brother Eteocles in single combat. Antigone invokes the law of the gods, the "sacred right of every dead person" to a grave. Creon, on the other hand, invokes raison d'état, his unshakeable word as ruler. He demonstrates his strength, condemns Antigone to death, and has her walled up alive. Unrest in Thebes grows. Creon's son Haemon, who is betrothed to Antigone, sides with the rebel. Creon is besieged on all sides, but his realization comes too late. ANTIGONE was once described by Hegel as "one of the most sublime, in every respect most excellent works of art of all time." It is now being performed in Cologne, directed by the Belgian Lies Pauwels, who has made an international name for herself with creations that are as poetic as they are political.