Repertory
The Hare and the Hegdehog Mole’s Star Anything Is Possible Puss in Boots The Steadfast Tin Soldier Cloud Pictures Panicman Pinocchio What the Rhinoceros Saw When It Looked Over the Fence Gold Power Love Death – The Song of the Nibelungs The Dragon Pretty Lola, Pleasant LieselThe Hare and the Hedgehog
based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm
puppet theatre for 3 year olds and older | duration: 35 minutes
Director: Matthias Thieme
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Nadine Wottke
Composition of the stage music: Jonas Wolter and Sebastian Bode
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Heinrich Bennke
I'm here already!
The hedgehog challenges the hare to a race. The hedgehog? With his short legs? Yes, the hedgehog! Because the hare, such a show-off, was laughing at him. Just because of his short legs. And now the hare has even more to laugh at. A race. Against him, the swift hare, who with his long legs only needs a few quick steps to reach his goal. Quickly and in no time at all he is there. The hedgehog doesn't stand a chance. But the hedgehog is smarter than the hare thinks. He can only succeed in winning the race by using a trick.
A play for all children and grown-ups that shows how wit and cleverness can help you overcome the show-offs and those who think they are better.
Mole’s Star
based on the children’s book by Britta Teckentrup
puppet theatre for 3 year olds and older | first release | duration: 40 minutes
Director: Julia Sontag
Stage design, puppets and costumes: Betty Wirtz
Music composition and sound: Katharina Lattke
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Maurice Voß
A story of light and darkness, of stars and sparkling
The little mole has his home deep underground. But sometimes he is quite lonely on his own in the dark. Then, when he stretches his head once again up to the night sky and wistfully admires the twinkling stars, he wishes that they were all his. Indeed, his wish comes true, and all the stars of the night now shine in his home. How beautiful! But outside the sky is suddenly as dark as a raven’s wing, the night is pitch-black, and all the other animals of the forest cannot see anything anymore. There are no more stars to show them where to go. What to do about it? Whose stars are they anyway? For whom do they shine? For one on his own or for all?
Performance rights: Britta Teckentrup c/o United Agents LLP, London
Anything Is Possible
based on the book Tutto è possibile © 2011; text by Giulia Belloni
German by Romy Bouché
first release | puppet theatre for 3 year olds and older | Duration: 35 minutes
Director: Karoline Vogel
Designs: Kathrin Sellin
Composition and sound: Jonas Wolter and Sebastian Bode
Rehearsal intern: Maricel Polixa
Cast: Hannah Elischer, Heinrich Bennke
Premiere: 6 June 2026, at 3:00 p.m.
Crash pilot and flying ace
Sheep looks up at the sky and dreams. “How lucky these birds are!” she thinks and runs to her friend Wolf to build a flying machine with him. Wolf is sceptical at first but then gets involved in the joint adventure. They plan and build meticulously and finally take off for the first time in a home-made machine. But building flying machines is not that easy and so it takes some time before their dream of flying becomes reality.
The play is based on the children‘s book of the same name by the Italian author Giulia Belloni. It lovingly tells of big dreams and how to fulfil them.
Performance rights: originally published by ©Kite Edizioni, German edition published bei ©Jumbo Verlag
Puss in Boots
based on the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm | stage adaption by the Ensemble
puppet theatre for 4 year olds and older | duration: 55 minutes
Director: Sonja Keßner | Designs: Nadine Wottke
Composition and sound: Kinbom & Kessner
Creative intern: Anton Ole Zang
Cast: Hannah Elischer, Paul S. Kemner
Take fate into your own paws
A poor miller has three sons. When he dies, the eldest gets the mill and the middle son the donkey. The youngest gets the tomcat, which he immediately wants to turn into a pair of fur gloves. But the tomcat can talk and promises the miller‘s son a way out of poverty. He asks for a pair of boots and sets off to catch a sack of partridges for the king. The curious tomcat becomes the favourite of the court, is allowed to go in and out, and finally succeeds in defeating the great sorcerer of the land with a trick, making the miller‘s son an earl and finally king.
This Grimms’ tale is an entertaining classic and at the same time a story about rebellion and cleverness.
The realisation of this production was supported by Ingenieurbüro Susann Schwarzenau.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen | adapted for the stage by Tomas Mielentz
puppet theatre for 6 year olds and older | duration: 40 minutes
Director: Tomas Mielentz
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Nadine Wottke
Music and sound: Philipp Hiemann | Choreographic advice: Stefan Kirmse
Make-up: Nadine Wottke | Internship: Antonia Fohmann
Cast: Hannah Elischer, Karoline Vogel
The wonderful world of living toys
An old kiosk full of wondrous things is home to twenty-five toy soldiers looking exactly like each other. Only the last one is different. He is missing a leg. But he is just as steadfast and brave as his brothers. He falls in love with the enchanting little toy-dancer who, just like him, stands on just one leg. But there is someone interfering. Or was it a gust of wind that blew the brave tin soldier off the window sill and down into the street? An exciting odyssey begins: the tin soldier rides through the gutter in a paper boat, meets a water rat and is swallowed by a fish. Will he ever see his beloved dancer again?
Cloud Pictures
by Mike Kenny
German by Andreas Jandl
puppet theatre for 6 year olds and older | | duration: 60 minutes
Director and designs: Atif Mohammed Nour Hussein
Composition and sound: Kinbom & Kessner
Creative intern: Maricel Polixa
Cast: Hannah Elischer, Heinrich Bennke, Paul S. Kemner, Tomas Mielentz
A story of friendship and separation
Theo and Beeny are friends - best friends. They live in the same house in very different apartments. At Theo’s, they eat cheese-on-toast and baked beans in front of the TV and never have to clean up. At Beeny’s, they eat curry with rice and samosas at the kitchen table and always have to tidy up. They play lots of games. Their favourite game is called cloud pictures, where they can dream together. One day Beeny moves far away, to a warm place, and for a long time both boys live their own lives. They miss each other very much, but when they finally meet again, things are no longer the same.
“Cloud Pictures” is a play about differences and similarities, about friendship and loss and about finding each other again. With this work, director and designer Atif Mohammed Nour Hussein creates a sensitive world full of emotion and fantasy that will delight children and adults alike.
Performance rights: Felix Bloch Erben GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin | www.felix-bloch-erben.de
Panicman
by Hartmut El Kurdi
puppet theatre for 8 year olds and older | duration: 70 minutes
Director: Naemi Friedmann
Stage design and costumes: Sarah Wolters
Puppets: Melanie Sowa and Mario Hohmann
Creative intern: Anton Ole Zang
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Heinrich Bennke, Paul S. Kemner
Don’t be afraid of super heroes!
Nine-year-old Jennifer is at home alone. No need to be scared, Jennifer thinks, and works through her secret list which is full of things she wants to do. At some point, however, it does get a bit creepy being all alone at home and she starts to get scared. Then she suddenly discovers someone who is even more frightened than she is. In the wardrobe sits Panicman, who has transported himself from a galaxy far, far away directly into Jennifer‘s wardrobe and is seeking refuge from his pursuer Bullyman. Of course, he will catch up with him very soon…
Performance rights: henschel SCHAUSPIEL Theaterverlag Berlin
Pinocchio
based on Carlo Collodi | adapted for the stage by Frank Alexander Engel
puppet theatre for 8 year olds and older | duration: 65 minutes
Director: Frank Alexander Engel
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Kerstin Schmidt and Frank Alexander Engel
Music and sound: Sebastian Herzfeld
Cast: Heinrich Bennke, Tomas Mielentz
The adventures of the famous wooden puppet in the conflict between duty and disposition
The woodcarver Geppetto creates a puppet from a piece of wood – it is to be his son Pinocchio. However Pinocchio does not stay at home with his father, but runs away. Disregarding all warnings and full of curiosity and hunger for life, he hurls himself at the temptations of the wide world. For isn’t it much more exciting to go to the puppet theatre, than to sit around at school? Without knowing the world, Pinocchio becomes a plaything between good and evil. He falls for false promises and becomes entangled in tall tales. After his many adventures, will he finally succeed in becoming a real boy?
The realisation of this production is supported by the Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt.
What the Rhinoceros Saw When It Looked Over the Fence
by Jens Raschke
puppet theatre for 11 year olds and older
Director: Matthias Thieme
Stage design and costumes: Mila van Daag | Puppets: Merle Smalla
Composition and Sound: Jonas Wolter and Sebastian Bode
Directing internship: Maricel Polixa, Anton Ole Zang
Cast: Hannah Elischer, Heinrich Bennke, Paul S. Kemner, Tomas Mielentz
Beyond the limits of humanity
There is a zoo near Weimar from where the animals can look out onto a strange area. A large chimney smokes there, and there are two kinds of people - striped and booted. Submissive order reigns in the zoo and none of the animals want to bother themselves with what is happening on the other side of the fence.
Jens Raschke‘s award-winning play tells of the events in the Buchenwald concentration camp from the surprising perspective of its zoo animals.
The realisation of this production is supported by the Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt.
Performance rights: Theaterstückverlag im Drei Masken Verlag GmbH München
Gold Power Love Death – The Song of the Nibelungs
narrated by Frank Alexander Engel based on various sources of the medieval saga
puppet theatre for 12 year olds and older | duration: 80 minutes
Director: Frank Alexander Engel
Stage design, costumes and puppets: Kerstin Schmidt and Frank Alexander Engel
Music and sound: Sebastian Herzfeld | Make-up: Nadine Wottke
Cast: Mortimer Elia Stock, Karoline Vogel, Heinrich Bennke, Tomas Mielentz
The old song of love and betrayal, of loyalty and revenge
In the beginning there were gods, giants, dwarfs. And gold. An immense treasure promising wealth and power. But the gold is cursed. It brings no happiness to its human owners. In the end, everyone is dead. All of them? What about Brunhild – the legendary, once invincible, mighty queen from the far north? She is no longer mentioned in the Nibelungenlied after the quarrel with Kriemhild and the murder of Siegfried the dragon-slayer. In our version of the old saga, we tell her story. The story of unrequited love, of betrayal and hatred, of greed for enormous wealth and power, of loyalty and delusion and of a terrible revenge that leads to the downfall of once mighty kingdoms.
The realisation of this production was supported by the Sparkassenstiftung Erfurt.
The Dragon
by Jewgeni Schwarz | German by Günter Jäniche
stage adaptation by Frank Alexander Engel
puppet theatre for 13 year olds and older
Director and stage design: Frank Alexander Engel
Puppets: Nadine Wottke | Costumes: Ira Hausmann
Composition and Sound: Sebastian Herzfeld
Premiere: 27 February 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
Vanquish the fear of freedom
A dragon has been tyrannising a town for four hundred years. As tribute, he demands huge herds of cattle, gardens full of vegetables and a virgin once a year. This time he has chosen Elsa, the only daughter of the archivist Charlemagne. For many years, no one has dared to question the dragon‘s rule. On the contrary, he is accepted as a useful evil, even respected and revered by many. However, the knight Lancelot, whom chance has brought to the city on his travels, challenges the dragon to battle. He receives little thanks for this and when the dragon is defeated, a new ruler seizes power.
“The Dragon” from 1943 is a parable of dictatorship and subjugation that has portrayed many societies since its creation and reflects the zeitgeist here and now.
The realisation of this production is supported by the Ingenieurbüro Susann Schwarzenau.
Performance rights: henschel SCHAUSPIEL Theaterverlag Berlin
Pretty Lola, Pleasant Liesel
by Heinrich Thies | stage adaptation by Kristine Stahl and Susanne Koschig
puppet theatre for 16 year olds and older | duration: 90 minutes
Director, stage and costume design: Kristine Stahl
Puppets: Kathrin Sellin | Objects and props: Nadine Wottke
Musical rehearsal and recording: Yulia Martynova | Make-up: Nadine Wottke
Cast: Karoline Vogel, Heinrich Bennke, Tomas Mielentz, Martin Vogel
The story of two very different sisters
At the beginning of May 1945 an American soldier arrives in Germany with the allied troops. She is returning to her homeland, which she had left fifteen years earlier and since then has never set foot in again. The famous Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich is looking for her sister Liesel. The trail leads to the cinema of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Two very different sisters, two paths in life that separate and cross again and are linked by film in a very special way.
We would like to thank Silke Ronneburg from "Deutsche Kinemathek - Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin", lawyer Frieder Roth from "Die Marlene Dietrich Collection GmbH" in Munich and the "Gedenkstätte Buchenwald" for their support.
Performance rights: Hartmann & Stauffacher Verlag, Köln