ON TOUR

— GUEST PERFORMANCES —

BABY BUMPS

Mittenmang Festival, Theater Bremen, Bremen
Performances: May 31 or June 1 2025 (final date to be confirmed)

Baby Bumps

Who wants to have a baby and should not? And who doesn't want to have babies, but should? In an entertaining birth preparation course, performers of Theater Thikwa and the feminist collective hannsjana negotiate the big political questions that are addressed to their bellies every day. For example, what goes in: beer, cake, or children – and what is allowed to come out. In a humorous stage show, the performers in "Bauchgefühl" take responsibility for themselves and others, develop new forms of reproduction, parenthood and care – or consciously decide against sharing their bodies and attention with anyone.

Brutale Dolce

A dance on a fine line between light and darkness. We move into the darkness and face beauty, brutality, impermanence and provocation. Where is beauty hidden in cruelty and brutality in sweetness? - Brutal dolce, basically.The early Baroque painter Caravaggio lies at the heart of this play. His use of strong contrasts of light and shadow as well as extremes in his private life made him a notorious figure in art history. His art was provocative and challenged common ideals of beauty. He was a punk of his time who turned “sinners” into saints.

Mehrere Personen in roten Ganzkörperanzügen sitzen auf einer Art Sofa aus türkisfarbenen Blöcken.

BUMM, KRACH, BOING!

In BUMM, KRACH, BOING!, Theater Thikwa and GRIPS Theater embark on a musical and visually rich exploration of how we live together. Between not wanting to get up in the morning and not wanting to go to bed at night, what actually happens and who decides? Is someone too fidgety? Doing too much nonsense? Dancing too much out of line? With these questions in mind and a lot of noise and boing behind them, the Bumm ensemble creates a colorful kaleidoscope of places, characters and sounds. Sometimes in the big city, sometimes in the bedroom, sometimes in the llama stable. But above all, time and again, making noise together: The players discover instruments from bass to piano, from rattle banana to synthesizer. And once this band is playing, one thing is clear as day: that it “bangs and boings and crashes / And immediately puts you in a good mood!”. In this ensemble production, the diverse group approaches everyday scenarios and, by playing with humor and imagination, finds small perspectives for big challenges. And, of course, lots of nonsense.

Scene photo of a performance: woman with a hat behind a seethrough metal curtain

Das Beuys

100 years Joseph Beuys: What would be when he would have been a woman? Or without a gender? Women’s voices, men’s voices. Women’s art? Men’s art? Or art and a snail voice? How many pockets Beuys's vest had? What's in Joseph's pocket? Memories, secrets, and clues of provocation? Or conversation/communication for heating each other?

Die Tüten aus der Verwaltung

The music theater combo glanz&krawall and Theater Thikwa tackle a topic directly from hell: the German administration. What experiences do people with and without disabilities have in the administrative jungle? And how can we free ourselves from the powerlessness and overwhelm of the system with the help of the lively genre of musical theater? Together with musical composer Sarah Taylor Ellis, Thikwa and glanz&krawall create a bureaucratic fantasy: against the administration, for the administration, as "Tüten," but above all as people whose lives are so much more complex and diverse than can be contained by regulations.

Mehrere Personen sind auf einer Bühne zu sehen. Zwei Personen im Vordergrund tragen schwarze Mützen und tanzen miteinander, beide blicken nach vorne.

Escher in Motion

M.C. Escher created some of the most intellectually stimulating paintings of all time. His works deal with the depiction of perspectival impossibilities, originating in paradox, optical illusion or ambiguity. Escher shakes up certainties and supposed securities and invites us to critically examine and question social realities. Choreographer Linda Weißig traces Escher's legacy in a visually stunning dance performance. Together with sound and video designer Adi Kum, his complex visual worlds are translated into movement and sound.

Eine Person auf einer Bühne vor einer roten Tür.

GRUSEL

Ein Mann in einer roten, glänzenden Robe blickt nach oben und macht mit der rechten Hand eine Geste. Er steht in einem Kellergewölbe.

Heart of a Dog

A production by HAUEN UND STECHEN in cooperation with THEATER THIKWA and WESTGERMANY.

Attention: The event will take place at WestGermany on Skalitzer Str. 133.

A street dog in need ends up in a dubious practice and becomes the victim of a terrible experiment: He is to be transplanted with a human cerebellum. But something goes wrong during the operation and the medical staff are transformed with him...

An opera performance in West Germany, a former dentist's surgery at Kottbusser Tor. Music theater collective Hauen und Stechen and Theater Thikwa operate on a post-Soviet creature. Can anything positive come of it? And if not, what to do with the waste? Between the hope of experimentation, hubris and sheer horror, we are dealing with cracks in history, confused circumstances and mean theater criticism.

An operation based on the novella of the same name by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Text: Zusammenspiel - Ein Festival zu inklusivem Arbeiten im Kinder- und Jugendtheater - im Hintergrund farbige Flächen

INTERPLAY – THIKWA and GRIPS

A festival on inclusive work in children's and youth theater

GRIPS and THIKWA are cooperating as part of pik, the program for inclusive art practice of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. They will present their results and findings at ZusammenSpiel. Both theaters invite you to exchange ideas.

Inclusive theater productions, film screenings, augmented reality, insights into inclusive working methods, workshops, lectures and much more!

Ein Mann mit einer roten Kapuze und einem weißen Gewand steht vor einer Absperrung. Auf seinem weißen Oberteil ist "Love" gestickt.

KLINGSAU

What can give us hope in a time that seems bereft of all hope? What can still save this country? In KLINGSAU, an immersive opera performance, music theater collective Hauen und Stechen and Theater Thikwa indulge in the spirit of Richard Wagner and take the promise of redemption in his late work seriously. Together with the audience, we bleed at a world out of balance and practice an escapist utopia. Winifred Wagner and surprise guests provide the entertainment. Who dares to disturb this gathering? Who is the Klingsau?

KLINGSAU is the second collaboration between the two ensembles, in which they walk the blurred line between innocence and historical oblivion, sharing grail, spear and wound. Is this already a conspiracy or mere esotericism and when do you actually become a Nazi while participating? KLINGSAU is a passionate and comical search for healing and revenge in the eerie world of Wagner, who would have wanted it no other way.

KONZERT FÜR ALLE #8 – SERGEJ PROKOFJEW: PETER AND THE WOLF

Almost everyone knows this musical fairy tale from their childhood. When Thikwa and the RSB take on the story of standing together against the wild, it probably works a little differently. For example, what if Peter was a nerd who didn't want to do anything? Isn't the story also about man's victory over nature? And anyway, the wolf is a protected species these days.
In a wild workshop with dance and musical improvisations, we question the characters and the story. And then reassemble them with a great orchestral sound. Not quite original, but still very fairytale-like.
A musical-scenic rollercoaster in two parts - with lots of surprises and hopefully a happy ending.As part of the “Concert for All” series, this is the second collaboration between Theater Thikwa and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Ein junger Mann trägt eine collagenartige, bunte Skimaske.

Merman

They enjoy eating fish, are adaptable, swim quickly and with pleasure, and they are beautiful: mermen and Addas Ahmad Mohammad. "Merman" is a dance-based (self-)portrait of Thikwa dancer Addas Ahmad Mohammad. In a thoughtful and humorous evening, he and dancer and choreographer Kaveh Ghaemi use their bodies to express what words often cannot. They take us on a journey filled with fear and courage, anger and tolerance, injustice and discrimination. What masks are imposed on him, and what do his self-created masks look like? The dancers’ bodies become the means of expressing the challenges and struggles that Addas experiences, as well as the moments of silence, laughter, and love that connect him with others.

NICHT-Uncool / Der Tod

Homemade – a series showcasing the unique artistic perspectives of directors with disabilities enters its second round. This time, we’re presenting two pieces in a double feature.

Ein Mann in einem Kleid und mit Perücke tanzt. Im Hintergrund ist eine Kleiderstange mit weiteren Kleidern zu sehen.

play boys

I never wanted to be a woman anyway, or a man or a gender. I didn't want to be anything, even as a child, a fog.A cloud, definitely not a person. I am a tree. A tree?

We do the shopping, cook, collect red leaves, spend time together, sing, dance dances. The movements of the people in the market hall as a dance, together, protective dances, declarations of love to ourselves, to others.

PETER / DER CORA FROST AND THE THIKWA ENSEMBLE wander and dance through souls, bodies and genders - PLAY BOYS, PLAY!

Zwei Personen tanzen auf einer Bühne, um sie herum sind collagenartig glitzernde Elemente angeordnet.

Schrumpf! Undressed

Ein Mann steht auf einer Bühne vor einem Mikrofon

SISTERHOOD / BROTHERHOOD

Scene photo of a performance: Two men are standing in front of each other on a stage.

Subway to heaven

A childhood in the broom closet… but I don’t feel any compassion for that now! Said Martin Holzapfel to Torsten Clausen. Or something like that. Is the greatest utopia a world connected by subways? Where they maybe only play Berlin songs? Or are we talking about the profession of the actor while rolling our eyes? And what is actually the difference between plastic and plastic, that is, art and artifice?

The Magical Recorder

An intrusive sound and troubled parents' ears - the recorder has a bad image. Inspired by musical instruments with miraculous powers from the old Viennese magic operas, we listen to the social charm of the recorder as an inexpensive, simple and loud democratizing instrument.

The anarchic, inclusive music and theater festival BERLIN is not SALZBURG hits the former Stasi headquarters in Lichtenberg (Campus for Democracy) from July 11-13, 2025. In front of the temples of the former GDR men's order, music acts and actors from the independent performing arts will present their reworkings of Mozart's Secret Service opera, The Magic Flute, for three days and nights.

Eine Gruppe Menschen posiert mit übergroßen Lebensmitteln wie einer Auster, einem Hummer und Trauben

Tod in der Tupperbox

Canteens are convenient. But flavour suffers in canteens. Why is that? Nine performers open their own canteen and invite the audience to the table! But a mysterious crime spoils the mood. The help of the guests is needed. We investigate with all our senses in small, delicious courses: What does a flavour reveal? What do we not know about our food? And what role does the gut play? In this murder mystery dinner, the food itself becomes a criminal case - bon appétit!

Mehrere oberkörperfreie Personen, die die Augen geschlossen haben

Undressed

Life is performance and entering the world also means entering a stage. But how much of ourselves becomes visible in public performance?In Undressed, the dancers of tanzbar_bremen dress up for the world and consciously enter the theater space as a space of possibility, as a space of staging. Only gradually do they attempt to shed the layers of representation in order to reveal what wants to shine through. What do I reveal and how much? An intimate game between role and personality.

Wir trauern um Dominik Bender

Wir trauern um Dominik Bender. Wir sind tief bestürzt über den Tod unseres geschätzten Kollegen und Freundes, der über so viele Jahre Theater Thikwa als Regisseur, Schauspieler und Trainer begleitet hat. Bis zuletzt hat er trotz schwerer Erkrankung mit aller Kraft versucht, Produktionen zu erarbeiten, Vorstellungen zu besuchen und Trainings bei Thikwa zu halten.

Der Mitbegründer des "Theater zum westlichen Stadthirschen" arbeitete fast 20 Jahre mit Theater Thikwa als Schauspieler und Regisseur zusammen - mit skurriler Wortakrobatik und seinem Interesse an persönlichen Geschichten, kollaborierend und verbündet mit den Thikwa-Performer*innen, erfand er neue Formen des Umgangs mit Sprache und Biografie. Zahlreiche herausragende Arbeiten sind mit dem Ensemble entstanden - "Maison de Santé", "Kafka am Sprachrand", "Protokoll Pankow", "Schillers Schreibtisch", um nur einige zu nennen - und wurden auf zahlreiche renommierte Festivals nach Zürich, Berlin oder München eingeladen. Theater Thikwa ist auch dank seiner Ideen, Impulse und Arbeit so weit gekommen.

Jetzt ist Dominik nicht mehr da - er wird uns fehlen, wir werden ihn sehr vermissen, und gleichzeitig wird er unvergesslich, uns immer in Erinnerung bleiben als einfühlsamer, ehrlicher, kluger und unendlich loyaler Mensch und Künstler, der unseren Ensemblemitgliedern mit Empathie, Zuneigung, Liebe begegnete.

Zwei Personen liegen eng beieinander auf einer Wolldecke.

YA!

At the center of this immersive and interactive dance choir is the plant yarrow. Nine humans are weaving fragments of melodies received by yarrow into time-fogging moving sound fields.
Trying to step into the ever fleeting moments of yarrow´s sphere, they wonder how they can show up without destroying its elusive nature with their human bones and flesh.

YARROW - what stores, what charges
what is carried away with the wind and disappears

YARROW - the constant in the disappearance
the mirror of oneness is the multitude

Visitor Information:

– Due to the scenic setting, there are only very limited traditional seating options. The audience is invited to sit on the wooden floor and seating made of sheep's wool and to move around the room. For those who cannot sit on the floor or do not wish to come into contact with untreated sheep's wool, alternative seating options will be provided.

– At the entrance, you are asked to remove your shoes.

– There is untreated sheep's wool in the room. It has a distinctive smell and contains wool wax (lanolin), which may stain clothing and, in rare cases, cause contact allergies. Contact with the wool is at your own risk.

- Unfortunately, late admission is not possible.