„Salon Trump“: Wenn Donald heute der Toni aus der Pfalz wäre

In the organizer's words:

Political cabaret with Alexis Bug and Kirstin Warnke

What would Donald Trump have become if his grandfather had stayed in the Palatinate? Then Friedrich Trump's grandson would have become Toni - and not Donald.

Toni Trump is now a successful master hairdresser in the Palatinate and has built up a barbershop empire. The Palatinate loudmouth is determined to become mayor of Kallstadt. Any means will do. He doesn't need Truth Social, he spreads his alternative facts in his barbershop.

Alexis Bug plays his signature role: Toni Trump. The director and actor from Berlin brings global politics into this communal comedy. It's about hubris, lust for power and outrageous hubris. Washington becomes Kallstadt.

Alongside Alexis Bug, Kirstin Warnke, known from the ARD satire program Extra 3, plays Toni's wife Ilona, the Slovenian housemaid Melania and the bitchy regular customer Alice Weidel.

Bug and Warnke play all the roles in this Kallstadt village cosmos. Toni Trump gives a great carnival speech that remains in the memory because it ends in a battle in the hall. This is where Toni Trump fights the citizens' initiative "Autofreie Ortsmitte" (car-free village center) because it attacks the customer parking spaces of "Salon Trump". Here he teaches his grandson how to play foul, because whoever kicks his opponents badly wins. The German Press Agency writes about "Salon Trump": "Sometimes a double seems more real than the original."

Music and the appropriate sounds are provided by Berlin radio playwright Paul Kuchenbuch.

Alexis Bug, 53, is an actor, author and director who lives in Berlin. Born in the Palatinate, he has worked as an actor at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Staatstheater Schwerin and the Berlin theaters Sophiensäle and Hebbel am Ufer. His best-known film roles include Leander Haußmann's "Robert Zimmermann wonders about love" and "Mein langsames Leben" by Angela Schanelec. He has worked as a director at the Berliner Volksbühne and the Staatstheater Braunschweig, among others. He celebrated his greatest directorial successes in South Korea, where he was one of the few Western directors allowed to direct productions ranging from Brecht to Nis-Momme Stockmann at the Korean National Theater in Seoul.

Kirstin Warnke, 44, born in Berlin, is an actress, author, director and comedienne. She gained stage experience early on at the Volksbühne Berlin, where she worked with Christoph Schlingensief, among others. Warnke is a co-founder of the artist group A Rose Is and has appeared in numerous productions at the Hebbel am Ufer, Berliner Ensemble and Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, among others. She became known with comedy formats such as The Dingens Show (Tele 5) and as a satirist on Extra 3. She also appeared in film and series productions such as "Dogs of Berlin", "Olaf macht Mut" and "Beck ist back". Her debut novel "Sei nicht so" (Piper) was published in 2024.

Press reviews:

"With a voice of thunder and brilliant facial expressions, Bug lives the outrageous Toni to the full." (Mannheimer Morgen)

"Sometimes a double seems more real than the original." (dpa)

"In fact, Toni seems more coherent in the Palatinate than Donald in America. " (Rheinpfalz)

"A great school of artists" (Schifferstadter Tagblatt)