Die Verwandlung

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a giant vermin. His family's pity soon turns to alienation and aggression; the last anchors to the sphere of the human are his beloved sister's violin playing and an erotically charged image of a lady in fur. In the end, his death is a redemption for all.



Manuel Gerst brings Franz Kafka's famous tale to the stage in a radical performance tradition. With an act somewhere between sadism and masochism, he presents Samsa as a scapegoat who must be sacrificed so that a dysfunctional community can function again. But how sustainable is such a sacrifice? What value must it have? How much guilt can it bear? And how defenseless must it be?



Find out.

Let he who is without sin throw the first apple.



In his previous works, Manuel Gerst has repeatedly questioned and subverted existing power relations in theater in various constellations, including under the label Monster Truck. In his works he often deals with the thematic field of "disability" and economies in theater. "Die Verwandlung" is his first work at Ballhaus Ost.