Global Player

With "Global Player", our young theater group put on a furious performance at the Theatertreffen der Jugend 2025 in the Berliner Festspielhaus, now there is another opportunity to see the production in Munich: As a "Schwabing premiere", we will be performing on the open-air stage in the garden of the Seidlvilla, Nicolaiplatz 1b. In case of rain the performance will be canceled!

By and with: Arya Durrani-Gill, Eyob Getachew, Fatemeh Hassani, Franziska John, Henry John, Jochanah Mahnke, Karim Aldiri, Mina Vogel, Mohammed Reda Talebi, Tracey Igbinosun

Direction: Christine Umpfenbach and Denijen Pauljević
Video: Patrik Thomas
Costume: Roubs Style
Stage: Xaver Unterholzner
Hip hop songs: Gündalein, ESC Rilla
Choreography: Virat Läm Phetnoi
Sound: Alejandro Nieto
Sound: Nick Pugh, Jakob Seeberger

The play Global Player by the Bellevue di Monaco theater group is about global players, corporations and refugees who travel the world and cross borders. In its traditional sense, the term "global player" refers to economic players that participate in international competition and achieve global supremacy by tapping into markets outside their national headquarters. Global player is a term for a company that participates in international competition and occupies a leading position worldwide in its sector with technology, quality and innovation. From this position, global players attempt to control the markets and political conditions for their products on a large scale, even outside their national headquarters, in order to further expand and consolidate their position. (Wikipedia) The idea for the play came from a conversation between director Christine Umpfenbach and Rüdiger Heid, who founded the street soccer league buntkicktgut 25 years ago. Muhammed, a young refugee who lived in a shelter in Rosenheim and was not allowed to leave the city, used to travel to Munich in secret to train with buntkicktgut. He had a good chance of becoming a professional footballer and was in talks with Bayern Munich and other professional clubs. However, as his residence status did not improve, one day he decided to move on to Sweden. Like many other refugees, he is a global player, not only because he is a very good footballer, but also because as a refugee he has crossed borders without a passport or money. A border crosser and border expert who set off alone as a minor. A global player who innovatively crosses borders - as companies do - in order to participate in the international market.

"The corporations work completely value-free: Their sole aim is to maximize profit. They possess a political, social and economic power never before possessed by a king, a pope or an emperor. At the same time, the piles of corpses of their victims are growing. The feudalization of the world is happening at the very moment when humanity - for the first time in its history - would have the material means to realize its common happiness. Why are hundreds of desperately poor village communities scrabbling together to send one, two or three of their boys north? Because the Eldorado of Europe represents the last hope of millions and millions of desperate people." (Jean Ziegler)

While economic players are pushing through the removal of borders for their markets, ever higher borders are being erected for others. EU borders are becoming increasingly difficult to cross, yet people are deciding to do so. In doing so, they perform at their best, traveling long distances, crossing oceans, jumping over high walls, performing almost Olympic feats. They are the true global players. Young refugees, non-refugees and actresses perform on stage. The texts are the result of conversations with managers and coaches who support and scout young footballers, with professional footballers and those who could become professional footballers and with buntkicktgut, a unique example of organized street soccer in Europe.

Funded by the Munich Department of Culture and the BuntStiftung München with the kind support of buntkicktgut.

Christine Umpfenbach is a director and author. Her documentary theater projects deal with socio-political issues. In Gleis 11, for example, the events of that time were re-enacted by contemporary witnesses at the original location, an air raid shelter directly beneath Munich Central Station. Urteile was the first play in the German-speaking world to be told from the perspective of the surviving relatives of the murder victims of the National Socialist Underground (NSU). Her play 9/26 - Das Oktoberfestattentat was nominated for the Mülheim Dramatist Prize 2021. At Bellevue di Monaco, she developed the plays "#Love", "#Tempest" and "Gilgamesh - leben ohne zu sterben" together with Denijen Pauljević, which was nominated for the Berlin Theatertreffen der Jugend 2024.

Denijen Pauljević, born in Belgrade, fled to Germany during the Yugoslavian wars. He studied intercultural communication, took part in the screenwriting workshop at the University of Television and Film Munich and works on various literature, screenplay and theater projects. 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 / International Scholarship. Since January 2022, he has been Head of Culture at Bellevue di Monaco together with Christine Umpfenbach.