Out of a total of 250 pieces for an adult audience, the selection committee has chosen seven that are nominated for the Mülheimer Dramatikpreis, which is endowed with 15,000 euros. A novelty in Mülheim: This year, the nominations are already honored with 3,000 euros each.
“Doping” by Nora Abdel-Maksoud in the production of the Münchner Kammerspiele: An ambitious local politician collapses just before the election and is taken to a quirky private clinic to be fit again in 24 hours. The darkly humorous comedy by Nora Abdel-Maksoud addresses career, body, and capitalism – with biting points about neoliberal contradictions.
“Dust Woman” by Maria Milisavljević in the production of the Schauspielhaus Zürich: “Dust Woman” connects personal stories about patriarchal violence that have long gone unheard. When a woman finishes her inner monologue, her struggle becomes a collective uprising. Maria Milisavljević's play is a queer feminist call – powerful, poetic, and unstoppable like water.
“The Exemplary Life of Samuel W.” by Lukas Rietzschel in the production of the Gergart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz: This commissioned work consists, as the author introduces his commissioned work, of 100 conversations and interviews: At an election assembly, people come together – politicians and voters, press and party colleagues, political opponents. The tension is high just before the election, and there are two promising candidates – the mayor and Samuel W. How does it happen that one radicalizes while the other seeks consensus and reconciliation?
“Mrs. Yamamoto Is Still Here” by Dea Loher in the production of the Schauspiel Stuttgart: “Mrs. Yamamoto Is Still Here” weaves fragmentary scenes about loss, loneliness, and the search for meaning. People encounter each other fleetingly, orbiting around the mysterious Mrs. Yamamoto and existential questions. Dea Loher's new play makes language a refuge in an uncertain world – a poetic theater about intimacy and transience.
“Ash” by Elfriede Jelinek in the production of the Thalia Theater Hamburg: Jelinek's latest work “Ash” is a deeply personal text about the loss of a beloved companion, about grief and inconsolability, about the feeling of losing the world when that one person is no longer there, “withdrawn into nothing.” And what happens when, on top of that, the world, our planet, is lost to us? For the 23rd time, Jelinek has been nominated in Mülheim and is thus the undisputed record holder! “Jelinek always makes her texts fly again,” explains Stephan Reuter, spokesman for the selection committee, so that the committee could do nothing but invite her.
“Old Building in a Central Location” by Raphaela Bardutzky in the production of the Schauspiel Leipzig: In Bardutzky's “horror opera,” the author combines social criticism with supernatural elements. In her commissioned work for the Schauspiel Leipzig, she tells of the very everyday horror of the crisis in the housing market and mixes aesthetics of horror opera, pulp fiction, and club culture, because from her small old apartment on Morris Street, Zoey wants to drive out not only the owners but also recently the musical ghosts from the 19th century …
“They Them Okocha” by Bonn Park in the production of the Schauspiel Frankfurt: A nostalgic theater evening about coming of age, lost dreams, and the inescapable future. Bonn Park directs with Ben Roessler a melancholic coming-of-age drama full of music that juggles between youthful carefree and the realization of transience – until everything falls from the hands.
Children's Plays
What unites all the nominated children's plays are the "small big catastrophes" in our crisis-ridden world, says Theresia Walser, spokesperson for the selection committee. Five out of 35 plays will be seen during the Children's Plays week in Mülheim. Their striking commonality? A hopeful rebellion!
"Cleaning Up" by Tina Müller in the production of the Theater Fallaplha Zurich
Three performers enter the stage. What does it look like here? In such chaos, they cannot play. It's time to clean up! But how does that even work? And: Is the mess not also an opportunity? Every object they stumble over brings them a new idea - however, the story they want to tell gradually becomes quite convoluted itself.
"Pembo – Half and Half Makes Twice as Happy!" by Ayşe Bosse in the production of the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden: When Pembo's father inherits a hair salon in Hamburg, the family decides to leave the beautiful village in Turkey and move to Germany. Upon arrival, everything is grey and foreign to Pembo at first. But then she discovers how much strength and heart she has to approach the new - and to make a round, happy life out of half and half.
"T-Rex, Are You Sad? Does Your T Stand for Tears?" by Fayer Koch in the production of the Theater der Jungen Welt, Leipzig: The world is ending. An asteroid impact causes (almost) all the dinos to disappear, leaving behind fog and dust. But a new world begins for Nagg, who hatches as a T-Rex in the midst of the catastrophe. Nagg grows up with the only surviving dinosaurs, Babsi and Päm, who rummage in the past, while Nagg only knows the present. With this piece, Fayer Koch brings young perspectives on a complex world into focus with literary sensitivity.
"Week – Week" by Lara Schützsack in the production of the GRIPS Theater, Berlin: Every Sunday at 4 PM, Nunu is on the playground. But there is no time to play. It's the transition from mom's home to dad's home and from dad's home to mom's home, mom to dad, dad to mom, mom dad, Pa- Ma-, Ma- Pa-… week after week. Yella, self-proclaimed Superwoman or good fairy, fortunately understands how difficult it is to be new somewhere, and bonus brother Max knows how annoying the little half-, well somehow also bonus sister is. Together, the children thoroughly mix up the adults' rules.
"Freddie and the Whole Catastrophe" in the production of the Ensemble Mummpitz, Nuremberg: Freddie, nine years old, knows the great catastrophes of history from Pompeii to the plague - until the catastrophe moves in at home. When her parents start to argue, she floods the apartment with water out of anger. The apartment becomes an ocean, and Freddie ends up on a ship that hits an iceberg - an adventure for the brave.
Which play will ultimately receive the Mülheim Dramatic Award and the Children's Plays Award will be decided by two independent juries. Audience members can be present live during the jury debates: On May 23, the jury will discuss the award of the Children's Plays Award at the Theater an der Ruhr, and the jury debate on the Dramatic Award will form the conclusion and highlight of the festival on May 31 at the Stadthalle Mülheim.
