Das Hässliche Universum

"The world must burn," says Rosa, sending her message out across the world via social media and chat rooms. And the world on the verge of collapse allows itself to be seduced. Oscillating between utopia and dystopia, "Das hässliche Universum" by Laura Naumann tells of a movement of the discontented who want to overcome their own powerlessness in the capitalist growth project. Environmental destruction, corporate domination, the impotence of politics - all this steals the sleep of five different characters. When Rosa, a visionary figure, appears on their horizon, the global followers set civilization on fire. But is a new beginning even possible? Does the intolerability of the existing lead us to catastrophe or renewal?

The audience interactively follows the radicalization process of the characters via different media until they all meet for the first and at the same time last time, at the funeral of the world as we have known it so far, in public space. The hybrid production "Das hässliche Universum" was created during the Lockdown 2021 and was presented both digitally and in public space in the spring of that year. The collaboration between the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and the Staatstheater Karlsruhe presented an interactive piece that ran over several day