hä?!

19.06.25 Premiere at Sophiensæle, more shows: 20., 21. and 22.06.2025

20.06.25, following the performance: Artist talk
21.06.25, 18:15: Scenic Introduction in the Festsaal, meeting point in front of the box office
20./22.06.25, from 18:15: Pre-Show Access, meeting point in front of the box office

The situation is not unexpected and yet remains incomprehensible. Yet we have always tried so hard to understand everything and make ourselves understood. We have expanded our multilingualism or – for the sake of better understanding – we have shed it. We have studied your books and have eaten white asparagus with you. And we told you about our grandparents’ fig trees.

We have written books and climbed stages. We have become migration researchers and diversity agents. And now we stand here and are speechless. Perhaps we have run out of words. While translating in the Afroshop and at the immigration office. Maybe your words simply became too empty for us. Like the promises we made to ourselves. And now we ask ourselves: Was it a misunderstanding, a translation error or did we talk past each other from the start?

Hä?! is an evening about understanding and misunderstanding in the migration society and the question of how we do not lose all the achievements of recent years despite the shift to the extreme right. We dare to take a self-critical look at our concepts of diversity, while at the same time doing everything we can to remain many and become even more. Above all, we should come to an understanding about how we got here, what actually happened and who this “we” we keep talking about actually is. There is a lot to clarify. Before we lose our tongue or they shut us up.

Photos: Mayra Wallraff

CONCEPT, TEXT, PERFORMANCE Simone Dede Ayivi
VIDEO Jones Seitz
SOUND, MUSIC Johannes Birlinger
LIGHTING, TECHNICAL DIRECTION Lou Oelrich
STAGE DESIGN Lea Steinhilber
DRAMATURGY Veronika Gerhard
ARTISTIC PROJECT COLLABORATION, MEDIATION Clara Tucholski
PROJECT COLLABORATION, MEDIATION Christine Daniels
COSTUME Mariama Sow
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
PRESS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Sarah Rosenau
ACCESS-ACCOMPANIMENT Aidan Riebensahm
GUEST Christo Schleiff
NARRATOR Dela Dabulamanzi

A production by Simone Dede Ayivi & Kompliz*innen in co-production with Sophiensæle. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Media partners: Missy MagazineSiegessäuletaz.

Information

The premiere is on 19.06.2025 in the Sophiensæle