KEYENBERG 3 // ein AUSWÄRTSSPIEL der studiobühneköln

A DOCUMENTARY GROTESQUE
ABOUT HOMELAND, IDENTITY, AND THE GARZWEILER OPEN-PIT MINE
A co-production by ANALOG and studiobühneköln

In a village pub, somewhere between yesterday and tomorrow: A resettlement officer with a penchant for Zen Buddhism, an administrative assistant who made her fortune through RWE, a widowed volunteer, a heavily pregnant activist, and a gay construction enthusiast take refuge at the bar from the approaching excavator. In the dusty atmosphere of this last refuge, they share their dreams and longings, get lost in conflicts, and grapple with their futures. 

Drawing on the real-life resettlement history of the village of Keyenberg near the edge of the Garzweiler open-pit mine, the performance label ANALOG develops a grotesque-political exploration of loss, identity, and the longing for home—a concept that promises as much as it conceals. What happens to people who are uprooted before they can put down new roots? And what emerges when home is no longer something that grows, but something that is made?

KEYENBERG 3 combines reenactment, documentary references, and hyperrealistic imagery. Between village idyll and ghost town, the production searches for a third place—beyond nostalgia and faith in progress.

Accompanied live by Ben Lauber on drums and a soundtrack he composed specifically for the production, an intense exploration emerges through the interplay of the performers—one that navigates demolition, reconstruction, loss, and new beginnings, with an open-ended conclusion. A village clash with no escape—between the jukebox and Doppelkorn, between nightmare and vision.

KEYENBERG 3 is a work-in-progress in the ANALOG series “Fictional City Biopics,” which is dedicated to cities and regions across Germany that are radically different from one another.

By and with: Jonas Becker, Dorothea Förtsch, Hanna Held, Lara Pietjou, Ingmar Skrinjar
Live music: Ben Lauber
Director: Daniel Schüßler
Set and Costumes: Ivan Bazak
Composition: Ben Lauber
Production Manager: Hanna Held
Dramaturgy: Laura Becker
Technical Director and Lighting Design: Tommy Vella
Set Design Assistant: Lilith Hellman
Inclusion Dramaturgy: Rina Schmeing
Assistant Director: Ricarda Clahsen
Financial Management: Niels Nester
Public Relations: neurohr & andrä