In celebration of the Beethoven anniversary year, eight young and adolescent prisoners from the Berlin juvenile detention center deal musically and theatrically with Ludwig van Beethoven's work and life story in this theater project.

From birth, great things are expected of Ludwig van Beethoven. His father wants to raise him to be a child prodigy, and Ludwig, too, has high expectations of himself: as a teenager he decided to become one of the most influential composers in the world. After a strict upbringing and initial musical success, his beloved mother dies, a loss that he overcomes only with great difficulty. His popularity rises as his success grows, but at the same time he steadily loses his ability to hear. He is surrounded by people who adore him and yet he is not able to find himself a woman for marriage. A life full of contradictions. Deep injuries, loneliness and the inner urge to always have to be better than everyone else despite his great success and fame throughout his life.

In dealing with Ludwig van Beethoven's life, we mainly approached the topics of child prodigies, letters to the immortal beloved and the Heiligenstadt Testament and had the young people formulate thoughts and texts on them, which then have been developed into three rapsongs under the guidance of rapper Aisha Madarati. In this manner we aimed to take the step from classical music into the here and now of the emotional and experienced world of the young actors. At the same time, director Sven Daniel Bühler wrote scenes for this play, which deal fragmentarily with topics such as humanism, music theory and stations from Beethoven's life. These sequences were further developed in the rehearsal process with the ensemble and adapted to the special talents of the players. The evening's main focus is also on Beethoven's classical work. Under the direction of Vsevolod Silkin at the piano a string quartet plays pieces by Beethoven and back the prisoners through this theater evening, which takes us into the world of the person Ludwig van B., as seen through the eyes of the young actors.

Performed by the aufBruch prisoner ensemble in the JSA Berlin: Ali, Celo, Eyüp, Ibrahim, Marcel, Muaaz, Özcan und Samuel.

Musical accompaniment: Clara Baesecke, Kei Tojo, Tornike Ugrekhelidze, Vsevolod Silkin, William Alejandro González Suárez.

Director Sven Daniel Bühler Rap development and coaching Aisha Madarati Music coach Vsevolod Silkin Stage designer Holger Syrbe Costume designer Melanie Kanior Video and technician Lukas Maser Production manager Sibylle Arndt Production assistant Ulrike Wolf Graphic design Candogan Oeguet Beats 3ckz

Funded by a grant from the Senate Department for Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination
Supported by the JSA Berlin.