In the organizer's words:

The return of the Indomitable to the Volksbühne am Rudolfplatz.
After the successful performances this year, the Unbending Man is back in the program.

Carnival in the Third Reich. A carnival speaker enters the stage. It is the popular Karl Küpper. The National Socialists have banned him from speaking - preferably he should disappear completely, the Gestapo henchmen are already standing by. But "d'r Verdötschte" refuses to be put down: he sits down on the stage, raises his arm in the obligatory Hitler salute and then just says: "Eß et am rähne..."? He clenches his hand into a fist, the Communist salute: "Nä, mer han esu en Wedder"! This is an unprecedented provocation against the Nazis. Küpper stands firm in the face of all opposition. Even after the war, his criticism remained unwelcome; even Adenauer exerted pressure on the carnival societies via the mayors of Cologne to stop booking him. As a result, Küpper was denied recognition for his civil courage for the rest of his life.

Küpper's story now comes to the stage with an ensemble of actors and Cologne citizens. Küpper is played by a Cologne legend: the singer and actor Gerd Köster.

Director Stefan Herrmann, known for productions such as DRUGLAND at Neumarkt and winner of the Monica Bleibtreu Prize, is staging the life of the "Verdötschter" for the Volksbühne am Rudolfplatz, Cologne's most traditional stage. The author Tilman Strasser, winner of the Dieter Wellershoff Scholarship of the City of Cologne, has written the play especially for this production.

Küpper's fate is accompanied by stories of Cologne citizens who are involved in carnival and use this tradition to poke fun at the authorities. Based on Küpper's life, the evening deals with the big question: How far are you prepared to go for your free opinion?

The cast

Director: Stefan Herrmann

Stage and costumes: Trixy Royeck and Veronika Witlandt

Dramaturgy: Nora Giese

With: Bettina Muckenhaupt; Gerd Köster, Georg Lenzen, Michael Meichßner and Cologne citizens

A production of The Beautiful Minds

The Beautiful Minds e.V. (TBM) is a theater collective from Bonn. In its work, it places a special focus on participatory and biographical theater work with the experts of everyday life: the participants bring in personal stories from their specific life realities and thus play a decisive role in shaping the performances.

The focus is on testing new aesthetic forms that deal with the dialectic of "staged authenticity". Play vs. real life; fake vs. reality. Unstaged vs. staged. Supposed authenticity and traditional role-playing are juxtaposed in a medium in which stage magic and play are inherent.

The aim is to create a theater for tomorrow's society together with the participants.