Lausitz Festival: The Way Out

Following the success of the »Sonettfabrik« at the Brikettfabrik Louise in Domsdorf in 2025, the creative team led by director Michael Sturminger returns to Lusatia with a young ensemble. In the Danner-Halle on the Telux site in Weißwasser—a central festival venue that has already hosted Shakespeare's Venice, Rome, and Cyprus—the audience will be seated at a large, round table for a special evening of theatre.

No one knows who the guests and hosts of the evening are, until one person stands up and takes a microphone in the middle of the table. Using Kafka's »A Report to an Academy«, they describe their struggle for belonging and the price of conformity: their »becoming human« as an act of self-training and external determination. Soon, other figures appear to present their own stories, gradually conquering the table that has long since become a stage. Worlds collide, and time and again, the question of a way out arises. The boundary between »us« and »the others« is brought into question.

How are humanity and belonging defined? »If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.« Where does the search for a way out lead us?

A cooperation between the Lausitz Festival and the Max Reinhardt Seminar, Institute for Acting and Directing at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.