Werkschau: Neue Dramatik – dass unsere Herzen wieder anfangen zu brennen

Four new texts. Four young directors

The Long Weekend of New Drama 2026 brings together four theater texts by up-and-coming playwrights from Berlin University of the Arts that fearlessly confront our present. They laugh in the face of right-wing danger, explore revolutionary potential in friendships, demand space for queer bodies and dream of good care. Whether as a stream of thought or by playing with characters - the young artists find their original literary form for their burning concerns.

In the retrospective, excerpts from these texts will be performed on stage by directing students from the Folkwang University of the Arts Bochum/Essen and talented actors from Theater Münster. The acting ensemble will perform.

In Laura Bernhardt's Deutschland erwacht, bleibt aber liegen (Germany wakes up but stays put), she provokes on social media between girl boss attitude and Jewish jokes and shapes her Aryan body during aquafit. While the two-fingered beard and side parting are familiar from the Nazi lifestyle, someone asks: "What is this German thing supposed to be? Not being able to clap to the beat and yet a tendency towards the rhythmic, debile enthusiasm of the masses that must end fatally?"

Directed by Felix Römer

Gegenfeuer by Julie Guigonis looks into the past of a group of friends. Back then, when Bremse was still around, they were united by affection and the fight against unjust conditions. Bremse and Kette, the punks, were part of their youth until Bremse could no longer stand up to the neoliberal hardships. "The enemy is not you / The enemy is the circumstances".

Directed by Donnie Gonzalez

My Star by Nika Matteo Hauger brings queer bodies and relationships onto the soccer pitch. This is where Eri, non-binary, and Stern, trans*female, find each other. "I'd rather switch off my brain than not score any more goals," says Stern and will realize a utopia: she will become a professional player. Even though Eri's career is made impossible by a torn cruciate ligament, the love between the two remains - and Stern plays for Eri.

Director: Malte Buchloh

Oskar Luiz Bonn's hospital play dares to experiment: the cleaner becomes a nurse, the night nurse a patient. Their amusing play quickly reveals that the conditions in the hospital hardly allow for proper care and treatment. "Whatever it takes and so on. [...] The problem is simply that I do all this, put up with all this and get rewarded for it with a few punches in the face," says doctor Peter and dreams of a better system with his colleagues.

Director: Sasha Kait