à mort is a performative-musical exploration of processes of domination, dying and killing. Excessive scenes of destruction emerge in a memento mori inspired installation of natural and artificial materials. The female voice emerges as a powerful physical presence in a dying world, challenging the grotesque human desire for dominance.
A ventriloquist’s show of a different kind: In a dialogue with a chronically ill clap-mouthed puppet, Hendrik Quast explores the stubbornness of intestines. A relationship drama with scatalogical humor, parody therapy and ventriloquism unfolds between the ventriloquist and the sick doll. With tools of the performing arts, the events of chronic illnesses that often remain invisible are staged; opening up new humor spaces in which illness is no longer a taboo.
Milliarden Jahre Widerhall was created after Naoko Tanaka’s travels to the contaminated area of Fukushima – a place where people’s connection to their habitat is forever destroyed. In a performative installation, Tanaka negotiates the ambivalent and conflicted relationship between humans and the earth, inviting us on a journey into inner landscapes.
Montag Modus: archive of futures presents a performance-installation set at the liminal space between film, dance and theater. Inspired by an encounter with three elderly dancers who were part of modern dance in Hungary in the 1930s, Figuring Age is a choreography of memories that explores how resilience, silences and traumas are inscribed in the body and in the movement.
The choreographic concert We are going to Mars is dedicated to the history of the first African space program in Zambia. Created from video works by local artists in Uganda and the USA, it is being performed with live music by Mourning [A] BLKstar.
The film version of The Making of Pinocchio is also available online as video on demand - for those who can't or don't want to come to the theater. The Making of Pinocchio is a queer re-appropriation of the tale of the lying wooden puppet who wants to be a “real boy”. Artists and lovers Cade & MacAskill reflect on MacAskill’s gender transition and their relationship. With their characteristic playful humour, The Making of Pinocchio moves skillfully between reality and fiction, fairytale and autobiography, the personal and the political. >> GO TO THE VIDEO VERSION
The Making of Pinocchio is a queer re-appropriation of the tale of the lying wooden puppet who wants to be a “real boy”. In a technically innovative live film shoot, artists and lovers Cade & MacAskill reflect on MacAskill’s gender transition and their relationship. With their characteristic playful humour, The Making of Pinocchio moves skillfully between reality and fiction, fairytale and autobiography, the personal and the political.
The concert-performance accompanies the release of Astrit Ismaili’s first solo pop music album, produced by The Performance Agency in collaboration with Obsequeen, Lotic, Katu, Colin Self, Nömak, Europa and Mykki Blanco. The lyrics tell the story of a plant undertaking a physical and spiritual transformation to become the world’s First Flower. The project queers contemporary pop aesthetics and manifests how creativity can be a strategy to overcome existential limitations, echoing the artist’s own path.
Sorour Darabi’s work engages with potentials of re-appropriation to uncover what is hidden by binary thinking. In a kind of futuristic mythology with roots in both visible and invisible, preserved and lost dance traditions, Natural Drama questions the concept of “nature”, exploring representations and constructions of the so-called female body.
In this immersive work between performance and film, Liz Rosenfeld and their international, intergenerational team explore moments of change and transition. Through the story of the main protagonist, URSA, an unfillable hole, they reference the Greek myth of the constellations Ursa Major and Minor (the Big and Little Bear), while they consider their own bodies in transition.
Untitled (Holding Horizon) is a choreography that continues Alex Baczyński-Jenkins’ engagement with negotiations of desire, the materiality of gestures, and affections of a queer commons. Through sensual, alienated gestures and the box step – a movement used in several social dances – synchronization, pleasure and alliance coexist with disorientation, limitation, and loss.
There’s no business like show business. Melanie Jame Wolf and Teresa Vittucci ask: What does it take to make a show great? Both known for their intense solo work and powerful stage presence, the artists take a close look at popular entertainment, theater and the politics of spectacle. As a double act, they explore its tender intimacies, its power dynamics and the impact of audience and stage space on the show.
Philosophiermaschine Online is an artificial intelligence that brings dead thinkers back to life. At the click of a button, the online audience enters into dialogue with Hannah Arendt, Karl Jaspers, Ernst Bloch and others, and can renegotiate their themes for the present: Freedom, dissidence, otherness, censorship, social utopia, hope - central concepts of postwar European philosophy.
Every successful blockbuster needs a second part. For the Markus&Markus theater collective, that’s why TITANIC II has to take the stage. The sequel starts where the film left off: at the bottom of the sea. So, it needs sand, really a lot of sand. Every year, mankind consumes twice as much sand as all the rivers supply. The consequences of this overexploitation are tangible. TITANIC II is a collision course, a melodrama, a telegram from a sinking ship.
Inspired by the made-up creatures and mythological figures of Acâibü’l-mahlûkat, Göksu Kunak explores notions of camouflage and self-censorship. This Persian cosmology book from the 13th century was translated to Ottoman and later in Turkish with a foreword of the current President. From a speculative perspective on the Middle East, Kunak examines (in)visibility and (in)concealment and the concept of taqiyya from Islam as hypercamoufl age.
For the fourth and final time, Sophiensæle presents the popular spring festival series Queer Darlings, bringing old and new favorites to Berlin. The works of local and international artists deal with personal and socio-political moments of change, transformation, crisis and transition(s). To do so, they overwrite folk dances and narratives, fairy tales and myths from a queer perspective to create humorous, immersive, sensual and imaginative stage worlds beyond binary norms – and celebrate the potential of queer imagination for new visions of coexistence.
The Sophiensæle are constantly working on developing and improving our accessibility. To do this, we rely on your feedback. We look forward to your questions and suggestions at any time! Please don't hesitate to contact us at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 - 27 89 00 35.
All performances will take place under consideration of current legal protection and hygiene measures [1]. Detailed information about the current Covid-19 hygiene rules [1] and tickets can be found HERE.
[1] Our protection and hygiene measures are based on the Infection Protection Act (IfSG) of 01.01.2001, the current SARS-CoV-2 Infection Protection Ordinance of the State of Berlin, the current Hygiene Framework Concept for Cultural Institutions in the State of Berlin and the current recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute on infection protection.
TICKETS Due to the limited seating capacity, we recommend purchasing tickets online via our webshop. Online pre-sale ends 2 hours before the performance begins. Please book a "Sitzsack-Ticket" if you need a beanbag-seat.
Disabled people get a reduced-price ticket. If you attend the performance with an assistant, they will receive a free ticket. The companion ticket can be booked online, by telephone or at the box office in combination with a reduced ticket called “ermäßigt (Behinderung)” or – as a wheelchair user – “ermäßigt (mit Rollstuhl)“. Due to safety regulations, a maximum of two people in wheelchairs are permitted per event in the Festsaal and Hochzeitssaal.
The box office opens 2 hours before the performance begins. Our ticket telephone 030 283 52 66 is staffed from Monday to Friday between 4 and 6 pm.
Furtherinformation on ticketsales can be found here.
SPACES AND ROUTES The Kantine is at ground level and accessible without steps. The Festsaal (1st floor) and Hochzeitssaal (3rd floor) can be reached via an elevator (1.76 m x 2.71 m) when accompanied by the house staff. To use the elevator please contact our evening staff. The distance from the street to the elevator is approx. 60 m. The distance from the street to the ticket office is approx. 25 m. Find a 360° tour through the building here.
ACCESSIBLE BATHROOMS An accessible toilet (entrance door 1m in width) is available on the 1st floor and can be reached via the elevator. It can be accessed via the Festsaal foyer. For events in the Hochzeitssaal there is a WC on the 3rd floor with an entrance and cabin door 81 cm wide, the other cabin doors are 56 cm wide. From the 3rd floor as well as from the ground floor you can reach the accessible WC on the 1st floor by using the elevator.
EARLY BOARDING There is free seating in the Sophiensaele. If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding. This is the early admission for all people (especially with visible or non-visible disabilities) who want a specific seat or a more relaxed admission. Early Boarding usually starts 10-20 minutes before the performance starts. The meeting point is next to the bar. Five minutes before Early Boarding begins, an on-site announcement will draw your attention to it once again. Our evening staff will be happy to help you find the meeting point. If you need a beanbag or wheelchair seat, please book it online via our webshop.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION We aim to provide individual "accessibility information" for each piece in our program. This includes information on lighting and sound, special effects such as fog, possible trigger content, the seating and audience situation and more. As of two weeks before the first performance date you will find the accessibility information below the announcement text of each performance on our website.
AUDIODESCRIPTION AND STAGE TOURS We regularly offer audiodescriptions and tactile tours of selected performances to make them accessible to blind and visually impaired people. The tactile tour takes place prior to the performance. The stage space is explored, props and costumes are described. The performers introduce and describe themselves. In the audiodescription over wireless headphones the processes on stage are described. This gives people with visual impairments access to the visual elements of a performance: movement, gestures, facial expressions, stage design, costumes and props are described. Places for audio description are limited. Registration at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35.
We offer a pick-up service for blind and visually impaired persons from the nearby S-Bahn, U-Bahn and tram stations. These are U-Bahn Weinmeisterstraße, S-Bahn Hackescher Markt or the tram station Weinmeisterstraße/Gipsstraße. To make use of the pick-up service, please contact Hannah Aldinger within our office hours (Monday to Friday, 10am - 6pm) at 030 27 89 00 35 or barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com.
For further information and registration please contact Hannah Aldinger at:
RELAXED PERFORMANCE Selected performances take place as Relaxed Performance. Relaxed Performances would like to welcome all visitors for whom sitting still for a long time in the theatre is a barrier (for example autistic people, people with Tourette's, with learning difficulties or chronic pain). Noises and movements from the audience are welcome. Visitors can leave and return to the auditorium at any time.
PARKING Parking spaces for disabled people are available in the immediate vicinity: One parking space at Sophienstraße 21 (approx. 50 m away); two parking spaces at the corner of Rosenthaler/ Neue Schönhauser (Neue Schönhauser Str. 9, approx. 230 m away).
LANGUAGE For all productions, you will find information about any required language skills in our print and online media.
Content Note You will find content notes on some of the announcement pages of the plays at the Sophiensaele. Content notes are indications of possibly incriminating content that can be potentially triggering. Communication about this allows potential visitors to decide for themselves whether a performance is accessible for them in terms of content or not.
The availability and scope of the content notes result from a joint process and in close consultation with the artists and groups responsible in each case. Therefore, there are not always content notes for all pieces in our programme.
We are aware that the content of some artistic works without content notes can be disturbing, stressful or even retraumatising for some visitors. As there is a wide range of different triggers and we are not always equally sensitive to all of them, we offer our audiences the opportunity to ask us about specific triggers in advance if they need to.
We encourage you to contact us and inquire if specific incriminating content will be addressed, shown or performed in one of our performances. All you need to do is send us a short email, for example, which does not require any special wording or explanation and can also consist of just a question. Please contact Hannah Aldinger by email at aldinger@sophiensaele.com or by phone at 030 27 89 00 35.
Please understand that it will not always be possible to provide information on all pieces and performances, and that the scope of the content notes can vary greatly, as many of our pieces are still in the process of being created and we show a lot of premieres.
We will do our best to follow up on all your requests. Thanks to the Festival Theaterformen for the impulse.
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CONTACT For further information and registration please contact us at:
