25 years of Labor Sonor. Five concerts. One long evening. 1) krautfuzz is characterized by an edgy, futuristic tension that ranges from neo-psych rock to abstract minimalism to pure noise: with live video improvisations by iLan katin. 2) INK is a flexible bubble of floating excitement, romantic slowdowns, and cheerful choruses. 3) Christian Kesten moves objects on an amplified table and tells strange stories to accompany them. 4) Fernanda Farah’s new piece FEED•IN•ATTENTION is a soundtrack consisting of her Instagram feed and its algorithmic discrepancies (premiere). 5) Contagious is a forward-looking mix of avant-garde experimentation and electronic music. Labor Sonor is the oldest concert series for real-time music and has shaped a broad scene since its inception. It presents the spectrum of current experimental music forms beyond genre-specific definability.

In the remote, apocalyptic desert landscape of New Zealand, three travelers encounter a mysterious woman and her child. What begins as both an exhausting and cheerful journey develops into an absurd but humorous night that tells a story of violence, isolation and emancipation. With »THE WATS« Berlin-based composer and musician Stepha Schweiger presents a new, genre-spanning music theater piece based on the short story The Woman at the Store by Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923). She translates Mansfield’s themes – the role of women, interpersonal relationships and our connection with nature – into a contemporary social context. Applying the musical methods of repetition and subtle, catchy variations, the music theatre addresses highly topical issues such as sexualised violence, climate catastrophe and the quest for self-determination. Stepha Schweiger is an avant-garde composer, producer, pianist/keyboardist and singer/songwriter in the fields of New Music, Experimental Music, Free Jazz, Song, Indie-Pop, Minimal, Conceptual, Industrial, Natural Tuning and Spectral Music. The performance on 03.10. will be followed by an artist talk with Theaterscoutings Berlin. Cast: Stepha Schweiger (the Wind, Singer), Anke Retzlaff (Woman, Singer, Performer, Avatar), Ziv Frenkel (Child Else, Dancer, Avatar), Deborah Rawlings (Narrator, Performer, Avatar), Raphael Dwinger (Jo, Baritone, Performer) and Adam Goodwin (Hin, Double Bass Player, Avatar), Musical ensemble: LUX:NM-Silke Lange (accordion), Ruth Velten (saxophone), Florian Juncker (trombone) und Zoé Cartier (violoncello) Concept, Composition, Direction and video content: Stepha Schweiger, Dramaturgy: Dag Lohde, Director’s assistant: Luca Anthony, Sound design: Florian Tippe, Stage background / Video:  PFA-STUDIOS, electronic music arrangement: Pyrolator, Light design: Aslı Atasoy Öner, Make up & costume consulting: Sofie Röhrig, Drawing / support with props: Sofia Casas, Production management: Johanna Madden 

Dissolving is a regular gathering for an exchange on crip-related topics. The focus is on neurodivergent, chronically ill, and invisibly disabled perspectives. In a relaxed environment, we invite you to exchange ideas about (access) needs and crip-specific organizational methods and aesthetics. We are eagerly seeking new connections and opportunities for action.The meetings are a mixture of the participants’ pressing issues and the topics prepared by Juliet and Wanda. Anyone who is interested is invited to participate in whatever way they can. On September 15, we will be discussing the topic of diverse (crip) temporalities.On October 9, the focus will be on opportunities for solidarity. The meetings will last approximately three hours (with a 30-minute break).We kindly ask that you register at dissolving.gathering@posteo.de so that we can plan better, but you are also welcome to drop by without registering. Wanda Dubrau and Juliet Meding have been exchanging ideas for some time now on the dissolution of pre-structured spaces and temporalities, as well as on the inclusion of marginalized bodies and ways of being.Since 2024, they have been co-hosting the DISSOLVING series.

Buba Sababa and Dick Hunt, two of the most legendary opera singers, have been given a tempting opportunity at the opera house to sing a play that hasn’t been presented on stage for more than 100 years. The rumors say that the play is cursed and a terrible fate awaits those who dare to interpret it… Come and enjoy this live singing drag king theater show, and find out the destiny of Buba and Dick! The project König developed from a longstanding community work. The goal is to build a strong and growing space for drag kings, trans people, and nonbinary drag performers in Berlin. A safe and creative environment where people can meet, share, and grow together, a space to celebrate diversity on stage. www.konigdragshow.com

In a triptych performance, The Dames and their three guests take the audience on a musical voyage from femininity to masculinity, through spirituality. Prepare for a ritualistic gathering, weaving glamour, grit, and heart into a single unforgettable spectacle. The evening is the grand finale of a series of shows developed by Nancy Nutter (vocals) and Madame Eve (piano) in the Roter Salon of the Volksbühne. In a durational performance at Ballhaus Ost, they bring together the stages of their journey with burlesque icon Chiqui Love, circus extraordinaire Jade Lee, and drag-king legend Bridge Markland. The Dames (created in Berlin in 2022) is a live cabaret musical duo. With a piano and their voices, they use music for moments of collective memory and queer power. From their origins in queer and burlesque bars, these trans sisters are breaking into the Theater. »Voyage de Genre« is both a capsule of all they have accomplished – and a window into what is to come.

You can’t yell at me like that all the time! – Then put your hearing aid in! An interactive performance about love for one’s own mother and the fear of loss, decay, and future poverty. An evening between the cross trainer, Albrecht Dürer, and grief – with karaoke, gymnastics, and pop music from the 80s. Michaela Caspar and Peter Marty know each other from their long-standing collaboration with the theater collective Possible World. The experience they both have in caring for their mothers is intense. Those around them react to the caregiving situation with discomfort, incomprehension, and disapproval. A strange silence descends. In order to open up perspectives on home care, to change them, and to create a place for exchange, Michaela and Peter bring »Sterben 1,2,3: Hopp!« to the stage. www.possibleworld.eu

The musical lecture performance “Left Hands” is dedicated to female artists of the GDR, follows their footsteps and delves into their work, is a documentary, declaration of love, punk concert – with Rosa Beton – and essay all in one.
 

The music theater collective Hauen und Stechen developed its works in cellars and on opera stages. It stands for a poetic, multifaceted and wild theatrical language that marks a political and idiosyncratic position in music theater.

N O T E :
The performance includes the depiction of nudity and loud pop music.

Ronald M. Schernikau is gay and a communist. He lives in West Germany and desperately wants to move to East Germany. His goal: to study at the Johannes R. Becher Literary Institute and obtain East German citizenship. Poignant, combative, silly, sublime. Gay fantasies mix with political analysis. Classicism meets camp. Glamour meets grief. Schernikau dies of AIDS in 1991. This musical reading aims to introduce you to a queer author who sadly succumbed to AIDS in 1991. Shortly before his death, Schernikau completed the book “Legende” (Legend). The manuscript remained unpublished for a long time. Schernikau’s magnum opus is a bible and a travesty, an epic and a musical, a documentary record of both Germanys in the 1980s that is disturbingly topical – and always a cheerfully profound exploration of the changeability of the world. Tucké Royale and Jens Friebe have worked on Schernikau both separately and together. Kristin Bönicke is Schernikau’s estate administrator and is working on an edition of his letters for Verbrecher Verlag. Elmira Bahrami was involved in the first performance of the program at Theater Basel.

»Der Ocean« is a multisensory dance and music performance for deaf and hearing adults, with and without babies. The performance delves into the complex and ambivalent experiences of parenthood and childhood—a web of contradictions involving care, exhaustion, and tenderness. Inspired by the image of the ocean—a symbol of vastness, change, and security, of an imagined, inexhaustible maternal source, but also as an open, connecting body of water—the piece approaches the themes of parenthood, care, and dependence from different angles. In close connection with voice, choreography, vibrations, taste, and sign language, a multi-layered, collectively experiential composition by Genoël von Lilienstern and La Cage emerges. La Cage was founded in Berlin and Paris in 2015. The company combines musical and sculptural forms in performative formats. On Friday, October 31, 2025, following the performance, there will be an audience discussion with DGS translation on »Der Ozean« in cooperation with Theaterscoutings Berlin. The performance on November 2nd is part of the SCHRUMPF! series and is an adaptation of the play for older children and families.

Who can remember being a baby, who is still close to that age? And who has ever shared their life with a newborn baby? We approach La Cage’s performance installation »The Ocean« from these different perspectives. The piece is aimed at both deaf and hearing audiences and invites visitors directly onto the stage to experience a total composition of sound, light, dance, and vibration. Using haptic elements, we are allowed to feel, hear, and even taste this world. In interaction with the performers, we dive deep into the experiential spaces of newborns—from both the baby’s and the parent’s perspective. After the performance, there will be time for questions and answers with the artistic team. At Schrumpf!, Berlin ensembles present their latest productions—in family format. New art forms are discovered, places explored, movements tried out, sounds listened to—and everyone can join in! Artistic Direction and Moderation of the Series Schrumpf!: Daniella Strasfogel, Production Management for Schrumpf!: Natascha Tertre, Press and PR for Schrumpf!: Nora Gores, Grafic design Schrumpf!: Suse Sebald, Social Media Schrumpf!: Richard Mattmüller, Documentation: Christina Voigt