Ich bin das Walross

In the organizer's words:

From the artist who brought to you "Der deutsche Mutter", the trans*feminist performance that became an audience success in 2023. Once again, the discourse is cast in a rollercoaster ride of abysses and gallows humor: A teenager named Johnny begins his transformation into a walrus, supported by his mother Silvie and the walrus community at Leipzig Zoo. He is confronted with the trials and tribulations of medicine and bureaucracy, but is actually just looking for a community. Meanwhile, walrus enemies Martin Wels and Janine Bückling are fighting in Connewitz Castle for the right of humans to exclude the walruses. Will Johnny find his place in this world?
With fabulous costumes (Fuguero) and rousing songs, Frederik Müller (performance) and Ben Osborn (music) will ensure that the audience's laughter gets stuck in their throats.

In the play "I am the Walrus", trans people live as walruses in Leipzig Zoo and are segregated from humans. In this world, trans people are animal-like projection surfaces. Two performers guide the audience through the story, including an audio collage of hyperpop and ocean noise.

Background:
A few years ago, the right-wing Youtuber Matt Walsh published the picture book "Johnny the Walrus", which is celebrated in the US right-wing and Christian fundamentalist scene as a masterpiece against "transgender ideology". In the book, little Johnny is pressured by adults to "transition" into a walrus until they end up abandoning him at the zoo. The book climbed the sales charts on Amazon in 2021 - in the LGBTQ section. This drastic metaphor is the inspiration for "I am the Walrus". In this play, a person is someone who is recognized as having participation, belonging, dignity and certain rights. By transforming into a walrus, a person can lose all of this. They are aesthetically devalued, turned into a sexual object, marginalized. Accordingly, the walruses navigate being an object in relation to their own sexuality, in which they naturally perceive themselves as subjective, but can never hide the projection onto themselves. The metaphor of the walrus appropriates a dehumanizing representation of trans people. Instead of defending ourselves against this ("We are not ugly and monstrous at all!"), we show the inner life of ugly and monstrous beings. In terms of content, the conspiracy myth of "transgender ideology" is taken up and dealt with.
The play also names the real history of the human shows at Leipzig Zoo. Matt Walsh's narrative in his children's book about trans people as zoo animals, which obscures the historical reality of those colonial racist practices, is deconstructed.

Performing: Frederik Müller (performance) & Ben Osborn (music)

Text & direction: Frederik Müller
Dramaturgy: Malisakij
Costume & stage design: Fuguero
With the support of Leipzig Postkolonial and Anna Obeng

Content warning: The play deals with experiences of discrimination and oppression, suicidal fantasies, animal suffering, colonial racism, trans hostility, misogyny & violence in relationships.
The performance will be held in German spoken language. The performance space is only accessible via a staircase. There are all gender toilets.

Price information:

08Euro = No coal ticket 12 Euro = Normal price 15 Euro = Promotional ticket for the "No coal" ticket <3