Nesterval

Update July 14: Sold out!

The immersive plays of the queer theater collective Nesterval transform temporarily used spaces such as abandoned schools or former warehouses into a maze of scenes and rooms, through which the audience follows individual characters, as the story gradually comes together. The Viennese group, which includes several performers from Hamburg — returns for the fifth time to the Summer Festival, taking over the 1.5-hectare Museumsdorf Volksdorf. For Hamburg, Nesterval adapts their Nestroy Prize-nominated piece, Das Dorf, weaving a dramatic wedding story inspired by feminist 19th-century Literature, Austrian Heimatfilme, and stark mountain farming realism. Farmer’s daughter Anna-Lisa is on the verge of marrying farmhand Johannes when two uninvited guests arrive, bearing knowledge of a terrible crime. The audience embarks on a detective-like journey through time, drawing ever closer to the roots of the catastrophe — and into a world shaped by patriotism and xenophobia. As always, Nesterval blends historical and literary sources with popular elements, culture and contemporary politics. Gender roles and role models are reimagined, evoking the utopia of a better world.