THIS PLOT IS NOT FOR SALE

In the organizer's words:

Network of Munich Theater Texters & Gisemba Ursula (Munich | Nairobi)

PATHOS theater

The performance on 31.10. will be followed by an audience discussion.

European premiere

At the center of this multilingual theater collage about postcolonial power relations, memory politics and identity is a trio with different perspectives: Stevan, a Serbian photographer with a mysterious "Camera Absurda", Pete, an ambitious middle-class Kenyan woman, and Kathi, a German heiress with a postcolonial guilt complex. All three want to use the camera for their own purposes - and in doing so, struggle for interpretative sovereignty over the past and the future. But the camera begins to take on a life of its own ...

Based on their own cultural and social contexts, Denijen Pauljević, Gisemba Ursula and Theresa Seraphin have created a multi-layered grotesque that reveals their own entanglements in global power structures with subtle irony. Documentary meets absurd theater, historical re-enactments meet speculative visions of the future. What seems unambiguous turns out to be a complex game with identities, role models and attributions. Who owns history - and who is staging the future?

Put simply
Three people from Germany, Serbia and Kenya fight over a special camera. They all want to use it for their own view of history. But the camera suddenly does what it wants. The play shows with humor how power, origin and memory are connected - and poses many questions about the future.

Biography(ies)
Theresa Seraphin is a theater maker, author and curator. She studied dramaturgy, comparative literature and art history at the Theaterakademie August Everding and Kyonggi University Seoul. In 2016, together with Raphaela Bardutzky, she founded the Münchner Theatertexter*innen network. For the production ERIK*A (2023) she received the Youth Play Prize of the Heidelberg Stückemarkt 2024. Theresa Seraphin also writes poetry, mainly in the theater. Publications include the literary magazine Jenny, MISCHEN and the Jahrbuch der Lyrik 2024.

Gisemba Ursula's artistic practice unfolds in collaborative, performative texts, immersive audio works and experimental films. Based on the deconstruction of representations of black African femininity, her work explores critical storytelling and experimental forms. Her recent projects include BEATRIZ, THE SAINT PRAYS (Kampala Biennale 2020, Manyatta Screenings 2021), THE ARRANGEMENT (AWPN Festival 2022, Anthology Gendering Taboos) and A SONG FOR ALICE: SOLDIER`S LAMENT (SPIELART Festival Munich 2023). This work was created during Gisemba Ursula's stay at Villa Waldberta as part of the City of Munich's Artist-in-Residence program in 2023, which led to a collaboration with the Munich Theatre Writers' Network, a creative partnership that continues to this day.

Born in Belgrade, Denijen Pauljević fled to Germany during the Yugoslavian wars. He is an author, theater maker, curator and performer. In 2014 he received the Raniser Debut author grant, in 2015 the City of Munich Literature Scholarship, in 2021 the Special Scholarship and in 2022 the Intercultural Scholarship. In the summer semester 2015 Denijen Pauljević taught screenwriting at the HFF Munich, since 2021 scenic writing at the LMU Munich. Since 2022 he has been head of the cultural program at Bellevue di Monaco.

Cast
Text, staging & performance

Denijen Pauljević | Theresa Seraphin | Gisemba Ursula
Stage & Costume

Nancy Aluoch
Outside Eyes

Rinus Silzle | Mugambi Nthiga
Production Management

Lisa Risch | Fedari Oyagi
Diversity Coach

Manina Ott | Mumbua Musembi
Acting Coach

Jelena Kuljić
Hint

Use of strobe light
Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible
Production & realization
Supported by

Verband freie Darstellende Künste Bayern e.V. as part of the process funding of the "Förderpaket Freie Kunst 2025" with funds from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts | Cultural Department of the City of Munich Department 3.
Co-production

Goethe Institute (International Coproduction Fund) | SPIELART Festival Munich | PATHOS theater | Bellevue di Monaco

The Literaturportal Bayern is media cooperation partner of the production.