Wed

3.9.

13:00 Exhibition
Festival

Thu

4.9.

13:00 Concert
Festival

Fri

5.9.

13:00 Exhibition
Festival

Sat

6.9.

13:00 Talk
Festival

Sun

7.9.

13:00 Concert
Festival

Sat

13.9.

20:00
maulwerker performing music

Sun

14.9.

20:00 + Artist Talk
maulwerker performing music

Tue

16.9.

18:00 Thaiboxing

Wed

17.9.

18:00 Training-Dance

Thu

18.9.

17:00 Badminton

Thu

18.9.

18:00 Berlin premiere
Boys* in Sync

Fri

19.9.

17:00 ping pong

Sat

20.9.

13:00 dodgeball

Wed

24.9.

20:00
ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

Thu

25.9.

20:00
ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

Productions

  • © Óscar González

Seedling

ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

65 Min
Haal

We open the cult sci-fi novel from our back pockets and start reading. The story begins — snakes and scars. Letters from a runaway. Study notes and cover versions. A folk song in a new language. A happy ending, and we close the book.
We try again — a recording studio in Nashville. A second hand bookstore. A bus station, a way station, a seedbank. The Scala and the Jeong. Another ending.
One more time — a starship powered by desire. A shell revealing our souls. A forest, singing to another forest. High tide.
Again …?
What do we do when the happy ending doesn’t make us happy? / What do we do with a utopia haunted by ghosts? / How do we know when the story ends?

»Seedling«, a new stagework from ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS, navigates a multiverse in search of beauty and meaning in the unending circular mess of our Queer lives. It’s the ninth chapter of the two-year constellation artwork With Forests in Our Mouths and a companion to »Palace of Ash & Rain« which showed at Ballhaus Ost in autumn ’24. www.withforestsinourmouths.com

 


Text, direction, performance, design ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS Sound support Jean P'ark Photography, technical support Óscar González Costumes Emma-Mariella Kurkela and ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS

With Forests in Our Mouths is a multi-chapter constellation artwork supported in 2024/25 by the Kone Foundation, and part of the Metsän puolella community of arts and research projects. Seedling, the ninth chapter of the work, is a ONCE WE WERE ISLANDS production in cooperation with Ballhaus Ost.

Dates
  • Sep 24, 2025, 20:00
  • Sep 25, 2025, 20:00
Access / Content Note

Damiá, English
wheelchair accessible
various seating options

»Seedling« aims to create a more accessible performance space for both audience and performers. Audience lighting levels will remain at a level where it is possible to move around and to leave the space if necessary. Alternative seating options will be available. The doors to the performance space will open at 19:30 and audiences are welcome to come and join us there to relax and get comfortable, listen to music, or ask questions until the performance begins at 20:00.

Trigger Warning

Brief reference to domestic violence.