Photo: Armin Smailovic

MK:

Die Verteidigung des Paradieses

An End-Times Fantasy Based on the Novel by Thomas von Steinaecker
Director: Gernot Grünewald

 Therese-Giehse-Halle
 World premiere
 Opening night: 6.6.2024
 approx. 2 hours 15 minutes
 Recommended from age 16
 Thu-Sat: 25€, Sun-Wed: 20€, under 30 years each seat category: 10€
 Therese-Giehse-Halle
 World premiere
 Opening night: 6.6.2024
 approx. 2 hours 15 minutes
 Recommended from age 16
 Thu-Sat: 25€, Sun-Wed: 20€, under 30 years each seat category: 10€

Enter our post-apocalyptic future!

Enter a multimedia theatrical obstacle course! Based on Thomas von Steinaecker’s science fiction novel, which was nominated for the German Book Prize, Gernot Grünewald develops an immersive spatial experience poised between drama, installation and video art in which the audience can freely move around.

After the end of the world, young Heinz is one of the last people still to be living on an alpine pasture in the region of Berchtesgadener. Ever since a major disaster, it is only possible to survive in a few areas of Germany which are covered by huge protective shields. Heinz is trying to collect as much of the lost culture as possible and write a kind of history of the last people. When one of the shields explodes, he and a small group of survivors suddenly become refugees. They embark on an apocalyptic road trip through a devastated Bavaria.

Gernot Grünewald’s work, which is poised between video and installation art, has an extraordinary visual power. In “The Defence of Paradise”, he allows us to experience a world after the catastrophe and, with his ensemble, creates a strikingly direct encounter between the audience and the actors.

The theater tour is divided into several stations. You can choose between four different starting times for each performance and will then be guided from station to station. Please arrive at the foyer of the Therese-Giehse-Halle at the time you have booked. The duration of the entire course is approx. 2 hours 15 minutes. The tour is wheelchair-accessible, but other paths are used and accompanied in places. Sensory information: Parts of the tour are located in narrow and dark rooms. Fog and rapid light changes are used. Various technical aids such as headphones and VR glasses are used. It is possible to stop or skip individual stations on the course at any time. Each station is supervised.

  • Assistent to the Director Melina Dressler
  • Stage Design Assistent Katharina Quandt
  • Assistant Costume Designer Rafael Hinz
  • Stage Manager Hanno Nehring
  • Artisic Production Manager Victoria Fischer
  • Directing Intern Kayana Bohr, Annika Schäfer
  • Stage Design Intern Lena Hölzl
  • Costume internship Elea Claße
  • Theater pedagogical support  Daniela Blümel
  • Technical production management Carolin Husemann
  • Stage Master Trevor Nelthorpe, Josef Hofmann
  • Stage Machinery Florian Obermeier
  • Signal box Falko Rosin
  • Lighting Wolfgang Wiefarn
  • Sound Thomas Schlienger, Korbinian Wegler
  • Video Jens Baßfeld, Maurizio Guolo
  • Make-Up Raimund Richar-Vetter, Marisa Schleimer
  • Costumes Fabiola Maria Schiavulli, Angelika Stingl
  • Props Dagmar Nachtmann, Heidemarie Sänger
  • Carpentry Sebastian Nebe, Josef Friesl, Michael Buhl, Stefan Klodt-Bussmann, Franz Wallner, Hannes Zippert, Clemens Künneth, Ellen Bosse, Eliza Aistermann, Wolfgang Mechmann
  • Locksmithery Friedrich Würzhuber, Jürgen Goudenhooft, Andreas Bacher
  • Decorator Maria Hörger, Anja Gebauer, Tobias Herzog
  • Scenic Painting Evi Eschenbach, Salvatore van den Busken
  • Stage Sculpture Maximilian Biek, Lena Hölzl
  • Stage Sculpture of the cow's head Sarah Grünwald
  • Audience support Antonia Gruse, Anna Luster, Luis Brunner, Ivan Vlatković, Noah van Moll, Paul Fontheim
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Learn more about the production “Die Verteidigung des Paradieses” and the novel of the same name by author Thomas von Steinaecker.

Press reviews

„Beeindruckend ist die logistische Leistung, die Technik und Saaldienst bei dieser Produktion vollbringen. (…) Respekt aber ebenso vor dem Ensemble rund um Maren Solty (nämlich Erwin Aljukić, André Benndorf, Sebastian Brandes, Nadège Meta Kanku und Luisa Wöllisch), das gleich viermal hintereinander die Anfangs-Episode mit möglichst gleichbleibender Intensität spielt…“

Nachtkritik • 7.6.24

„Und es ist tatsächlich verblüffend, wie hier ein eigenständiger, sehr präziser Abend entsteht, der trotzdem nah an der Vorlage bleibt. (…)

Gleichwohl ist es faszinierend, wie präzise der Ablauf funktioniert. Wie perfekt die Sequenzen aufeinander abgestimmt sind, wie sich aus den einzelnen Elementen die Erlebnisse von Heinz formen.“

Süddeutsche Zeitung • 7.6.24

“Insgesamt erlebt man bei diesem theatralen Kreuzweg ein gut gebautes und auch technisch beeindruckendes Stück Untergangs-Kulinarik, quasi eine Wohlfühl-Katastrophe zum Mitfiebern.”

Münchner Merkur • 8.6.24

“Theater im klassischen Sinne darf man allerdings nicht erwarten, vielmehr ein multimediales Event, welches die Zuschauer immersiv teilhaben lässt an den Erlebnissen des kleinen Grüppchens und sie selbst zu Akteuren macht, die mitten drin im Geschehen sind.”

Passauer Neue Presse • 17.6.24