She was so attractive! Many felt an irresistible pull towards her, sometimes towards their downfall, sometimes towards their own liberation.

They came out of curiosity. Some sought refuge here from the violence of patriarchal societies. For Berlin promised them freedom and the chance to shape their own lives. Or did those who came here create this promising Berlin?
In Bishop Black’s *Amigues Adios*, five performers set out in search of Berlin’s promise: the freedom to be together beyond the conservative boundaries of sexual and racial identity.

At the turn of the millennium, those who came transformed the city into their haven. They went ashore because the rents were cheap and where they came from mattered less than the here and now. Here, they shed outdated roles to negotiate new ways of living together. Where have openness and freedom gone?

The fiveprotagonists of *Amigues Adios* are still here. They remember those Black queer Berlin womenwho, back then, had the courage to turn the city into a promise. They know the precariousness and those who broke down under the weight of violence and cold. But they also know the beauty of that moment when this city – so unexpected and improbable given Germany’s past – became a city of openness. And so they seek out the possibilities of living memory and the art of reviving community and freedom. In a surreal and burlesque dance through the ages, they come together to find the strength to carry on. They celebrate to taste once more the freedom from fear and self-determination on their tongues.

*Amigues Adios* is Bishop Black’s fourth work at the Ballhaus Naunynstraße, following the solo performance *Becoming My Body* (2019), *Re-Searching Joy* (2022) as part of the *akademie der autodidakten*, and his directorial debut *Flight of the Canaries* (2023).

Concept | Text | Direction Bishop Black
Assistant Director Laura Alonso
Dramaturgy Nima Aida Séne
Video design Arel Dewi
Lighting design Shun Perrotta
Costume design Deivid Diniz
Set design Omar Sherif
Sound designGhostpoet
Make-up Nuria de Lario
Production Manager Mohammad Serhan
Cast Newroz Çelik | Ari Cottingham | Juan Carlos Cuadrado | Kim Darbouze | George N Roses