By Rainer Werner Fassbinder with an epilogue by Emre Akal
What if racism is suddenly sitting in your living room?
They are stuck in the provinces and want to leave. They can’t live with or without each other. They eye each other and tear each other apart. Their boredom, envy and money worries feed their prejudices. Until their aggression is unleashed on Jorgos, who came to Bavaria from Greece as a guest worker. In “Katzelmacher”, Fassbinder portrayed the social and cultural struggles of a suburban neighborhood in Bavaria at the end of the 1960s.
In his productions, Emre Akal creates associative artificial worlds together with the artist duo Mehmet & Kazim, in which analog and digital means blur into an illusion of their own. He also places “Katzelmacher” in such a nightmarish setting and traces the mechanisms of a disparate and racist society and its revenants in the present and future.
People who feel humiliated humiliate others in order to elevate themselves - what happens when this dynamic takes on a life of its own and penetrates through supposedly protective walls into the common spaces, into the most private rooms?
With Fassbinder’s “Katzelmacher” behind him and with a specially written epilogue, Emre Akal takes a hesitant look at our current society.
“The fact that the themes of ‘Katzelmacher’ are so timeless shows how important it is to keep renegotiating them. Every generation is confronted with its own versions of these social struggles. The question is: are we capable of creating something new with old tools?”
- Emre Akal, director
- With Edmund Telgenkämper, Stefan Merki, Nadège Meta Kanku, Annika Neugart, Annette Paulmann, Leoni Schulz, Maren Solty, Anja Signitzer
- Directed by Emre Akal
- Stage design & video animation Mehmet & Kazim Akal
- Costumes Lara Roßwag
- Musical direction, composition & sound design Enik
- Lighting Design Wolfgang Eibert
- Dramaturgy Hannah Baumann
- Dramaturgy Preparation Anna Laner
- Artistic Production Management Daniela Schroll
- Technical Production Management Adrian Bette, Jonas Pim Simon
- Sound Katharina Widmaier-Zorn, Ulrich Treutwein
- Video Ikenna David Okegwo
- Stage Master Marcel Homack
- Assistant to the Director Constanze Nogueira Negwer
- Stage Design Assistant Katharina Quandt
- Costume Design Assistant Jacqueline Elaine Koch
- Stage Manager Hanno Nehring
- Prompter Daphne Chatzopoulos
- Stage Design Intern Pia Frank
- Costume Design Intern Lio Paltinger, Magdalena Eggeringhaus
- Dramaturgy Intern Jonathan Frisch
- Stage Management Intern Anran Xu
- Surtitels Yvonne Griesel (SPRACHSPIEL)
- Stage Machinery Florian Obermeier, Stephan Preusser
- Signal box Michael Pohorsky
- Lighting Tankred Friedrich, Sebastien Lachenmaier, Felix Adams, Yongwoo Kwon
- Make Up Sofie Reindl-Grüger, Mai Strathmann, Raimund Richar-Vetter
- Mask making cat heads Raimund Richar-Vetter, Sofie Reindl-Grüger
- Costume Pavla Engelhardtova, Angelika Stingl, Nico Vanni, Jessica Watermann
- Props Manuel Kößler, Daniel Bittner
- Carpentry Stefan Klodt-Bussmann, Josef Piechatzek, Josef Friesl, Michael Buhl, Clemens Künneth, Hannes Zippert, Tobias Holland
- Metalworker Friedrich Würzhuber, Jürgen Goudenhooft, Andreas Bacher
- Decoration Tim Hagemeyer, Lisann Öttl, Anja Gebauer, Maria Hörger, Tobias Herzog
- Scenic Painting Evi Eschenbach, Jeanette Raue, Jasmin Bude
- Stage Sculpture Maximilian Biek
Digital Introduction (in German)
Press reviews
“Director Emre Akal, whose brightly colored production ”Göttersimulation” is still fondly remembered at the theatre, has once again worked closely with the artist duo Mehmet & Kazim Akal, his brother and cousin. The visuals of this topical yet surprisingly timeless dramatization are correspondingly pop and impressive.”
“If you want an opulent evening with powerful images, this is the place for you.”
Dates & Tickets
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Thu 18.12. 8 – 9:20 pm
Introduction from 7:30 pm
Back on the schedule
- Schauspielhaus
- Premiere: 10.4.2025
- 1 hour 20 minutes
- With English surtitles
- Thu-Sat: 15-45€, Sun-Wed: 10-40€, under 30 years each seat category: 10€