Anna stiede & Panzerkreuzer Rotkäppchen CYANKALI – a piece of East German theatre that will endure

A play about self-determination, loss and women’s bodies.

With CYANKALI, Friedrich Wolf’s 1929 drama returns to the Marzahn stage in a powerful new adaptation – wild, precise, timeless. The play draws a compelling line from the struggles of working women in the Weimar Republic to the present day and highlights how the right to abortion reflects the progress of political conditions.

The focus is on the experiences of women with East German biographies – women who enjoyed a higher degree of physical self-determination under more liberal legislation in the GDR and who, with the end of the GDR, lost a right that they had taken for granted. Historical documents are interwoven with expert knowledge and current issues.

CYANKALI brings generations together and needs voices from Marzahn: it invites you to read, recognise and be shaken, to ask questions, dance, discuss, demand and think ahead. The production is aimed at adults and schoolchildren alike – at anyone who wants to understand how closely personal freedom and political decisions are linked.

Idea | Research | Performance Anna Stiede
Direction | Conceptual development Susann Neuenfeldt
Music Hans Narva, Al Titzki