Die Namenlosen | Verfolg in Hamburg (German show)

Link: https://kampnagel.de/produktionen/sf-23-nesterval-die-namenlosen

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to witness the premiere of Nesterval’s new piece “The Nameless” in Vienna. I believe it’s one of the most exceptional immersive theatre pieces I’ve seen all year. Regrettably, the performances in Vienna have concluded for now. However, the show is coming to Hamburg for the International Summer Festival Kampnagel! It will be available on the following dates:
10.–13.08. | 15.–19.08. | 22.–26.08.2023

If you speak German and have an interest in immersive theatre, I believe this is a must-see. If you don’t speak German, this experience could still be enjoyable for you, although expect not to fully grasp the complex storyline. After all, even for those fluent in the language, piecing everything together can be challenging.

PLAY DESCRIPTION
Theatre can be so exciting: The award-winning immersive Viennese theatre group will take over the Cocoa Storage Hall in HafenCity for three weeks. The queer folk theatre guerilla Nesterval produces theatre for people who find theatre usually boring. With immersive settings and the utilisation of vacant buildings, the Viennese theatre group directly involves its audience and creates an addictive theatre experience. In their hometown Vienna, their plays sell out within minutes, and their three-week takeover of the Uebel & Gefährlich Club at the 2021 Summer Festival was a crowd favourite with queues. Now, the 25-person team is returning to Hamburg and will present a theatre piece on nearly 2000 square meters of the former storage shed in Baakenhöft in HafenCity throughout the entire festival. As in other Nesterval works, the group deals with recent history and now addresses a pressing issue: the systematic persecution and murder of homosexual and trans individuals by the Nazis – in the immediate vicinity of the former deportation station Hannoverscher Bahnhof in today’s Lohsepark. In 25 rooms and over three hours, the audience dives into an imaginary world based on real biographies, gets caught in a whirl of fiction and reality, and then ends up in the canteen of an imaginary porcelain factory with a variety show. There, members of the Nesterval family, factory workers, and neighbours encounter each other. For it is said that at night, the company canteen becomes an unofficial pub for people outside the heterosexual norm – and the centre of a lingering theatrical evening.