In the organizer's words:

Bühne Cipolla transforms well-known works of world literature into expressive and poetic puppet theater with live music. Original puppets, expressive masks and fantastic sounds create worlds on stage that exert an irresistible fascination on the audience. The audience experiences an atmospherically dense total work of art as intense theatrical enjoyment for all the senses.

"So this is what it looks like, the collision with reality."

Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Cellar Hole tells the story of a nameless civil servant in the thick of the city who gives up work, friends and social obligations in order to eke out his existence in a kind of social experiment in a cellar with the help of a small inheritance.

Confronted with the pitfalls of being alone, he repeatedly returns to the outside world, picks a fight with a high-ranking officer, causes a class reunion to escalate and questions the relationship between man and man with a chance acquaintance.
the relationship between man and woman with a chance acquaintance.

It is the psychological portrait of an impossible character: he despises prestige and success, but at the same time is ashamed of his modest lifestyle. He has to shatter every possibility of happiness and push it far away, only to long for it in silence. And yet there is a sharp social analysis in his struggles, the constant fight against lies and beautiful appearances.

The story, published in 1864, is bitterly wicked fun, an exploration of the human soul, combined with a challenge to become aware of one's own individuality.

Director and playwright: Sebastian Kautz
Composition and sound design: Gero John
Stage, puppetry and costumes: Melanie Kuhl
Technical installation and lighting design: Frank Barufke