Sprachnachricht aus dem Krieg – Dokumentarische Audio-Performance

A voice message brings someone close, even when they’re far away. It carries breath, pauses, fatigue, humor, fear, and tenderness. Sometimes it’s just a brief sign of life. Sometimes it’s an attempt to stay connected. Sometimes it contains exactly what can’t be said anywhere else.

Since 2014, Russia’s war against Ukraine has shaped the present for many people in and from Ukraine, and with renewed severity since the full-scale invasion in 2022. Young queer lives, too, are unfolding under conditions marked by air raid sirens, uncertainty, loss, and flight. At the same time, friendship, love, community, anger, hope, and self-assertion are all part of it. Some have stayed; others have fled Ukraine. Even in a new place, Ukraine remains part of their everyday lives: in the news, in memories, in conversations, and in the question of how life can go on.

So far, little has been heard in Germany about queer life in Ukraine during the war. The focus is often on geopolitical situation reports, military developments, or humanitarian aid. Rarely does the discussion turn to personal experiences—to bodies, relationships, language, desire, and the question of how queer everyday life continues under these conditions. Many stories are told only cautiously, remain fragmentary, or go entirely untold.

For “Voice Message from the War,” the Düsseldrama team traveled to Ukraine in July and conducted interviews with young queer Ukrainians on the ground. Back in Düsseldorf, these voices now meet with young queer Ukrainians living here. In an intensive theater workshop, they engage with the documentary material together with director Marvin Wittiber and his team, contributing their own experiences of arrival, memory, everyday life, and being queer in Germany. From this dialogue emerges a documentary audio performance about everyday life and self-assertion. What does a voice from afar tell us? What sounds are part of an everyday life that goes on despite the war? And what happens when listening turns into a response?

A documentary audio performance with young queer Ukrainians about everyday life and self-assertion

Dates:
Saturday, September 26, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 27, 6:00 p.m.

Information about the supporting program will follow.

Featuring teenagers and young adults aged 16–27

Artistic Director: Marvin Wittiber
Text: Malin Kraus & Ensemble
Set design: Alina Gorr
Sound design: Milan Julius Philipp
Research: Marvin Wittiber, Niclas Reichelt, Natalie Neumann

A production byDüsseldramain cooperation withde.Perspektive e. V. and Jugendring Düsseldorf,in collaboration withJugend.Perspektive, the Düsseldorf Theater Museum, and Queere Geschichte(n) Düsseldorf e. V.,with support fromKyivPride, Queeres Netzwerk NRW, and the Düsseldorf Office for Equality and Anti-Discrimination,and funded by “Demokratieleben!” Düsseldorf as part of the Düsseldorf Democracy Fund