Anarchie in Bayern

Young people launch a revolution and declare Bavaria the SAB: the Socialist Anarchy of Bavaria. After the state has existed as an anarchy for a while, the militarily undefended Bavaria is occupied. Rather than being a liberated paradise, what emerges is a conflict-ridden juxtaposition of old mindsets and new orders. Amidst absurd characters, grotesque scenes and musical elements, ideologies collide.

In the form of a revue, the play presents a series of snapshots of a failing utopia. With acerbic wit, deliberate exaggeration and unsparing directness, it challenges the very idea of ​​liberation and, simultaneously, the society it attempts to create. What happens when the revolution outpaces human consciousness?

Mikheil Charkviani lived and worked for many years in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is a theatre director, set designer and translator, as well as the founder and curator of Open Space, a centre for performing and visual arts. As an active member of the protest movement, he was forced to leave Georgia in 2024. The original production of “Anarchie in Bayern” (“Anarchy in Bavaria”) premiered in the Werkraum theatre of the Münchner Kammerspiele in 1969. Now Charkviani is working with the graduating class of the Otto Falckenberg School to present the play again, this time through the lens of the present day.

“What looks like a revolution quickly transforms into a theatre of committees, declarations and self-aggrandising characters who believe they are reshaping the world – while they are for the most part merely rearranging their own authority. In this sense, “Anarchie in Bayern” becomes a scathing criticism of today’s elites: not as villains, but as characters trapped within their own apparatus, endlessly making decisions that lead nowhere.” – Mikheil Charkviani