A poem as a universe, a crisis as the origin of art: with alphabet by Inger Christensen, the Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg brings a literary masterpiece of the century to the stage, dissolving the boundaries between poetry, music, and theater. The Danish author's poem was written as a poetic response to existential uncertainty—as an attempt to find language, order, and meaning again in a seemingly unreadable world. Director Thom Luz transforms this poetic cosmos into a sensitive theater of sound and images, in which words, music, and drama interweave to create a fleeting, fascinating overall experience.
Christensen's poetry follows a strict, almost mathematical structure. Inspired by the Fibonacci sequence, a growth formula that occurs frequently in nature, she allows the world to emerge piece by piece from language. With the recurring poetic formula "there is," a universal process of becoming unfolds: from the first tree to animals and chemical elements to cosmic phenomena such as Halley's Comet. Physical and metaphysical levels merge into a hymn to life that also tells of the fragility of existence. The poem thus becomes an existential affirmation of the present and the future—a poetic response to the threat of destruction and oblivion.
Thom Luz transforms this poetic architecture into a theatrical-musical experience of delicate intensity. With three actresses from different generations, a multi-layered dialogue emerges between experience, memory, and the present. Ilse Ritter, one of the most influential stage personalities in German-language theater, brings her decades of theater experience to the poetic narrative movement. She is joined by Julia Wieninger, who has won numerous awards and is known for her collaboration with leading contemporary directors. The younger generation is represented by Alberta von Poelnitz, who, after training at a music and theater college, embodies the transition between film, television, and stage.
Alberta von Poelnitz © Axel Martens
The performers are accompanied by musicians Stephan Krause, Ling Zhang, and Peter Conradin Zumthor, whose musical compositions translate Christensen's poetic landscapes into an atmospheric tapestry of sound. Here, music is not merely accompaniment, but an independent narrative language—sometimes playful, sometimes melancholic, always carried by a quiet irony and a deep sensitivity to the moment.
The result is a theatrical evening about becoming and passing away, about language as a living space, and about the fragile beauty of existence. alphabet reminds us that in times of crisis, art can be a place of orientation—not through clear-cut answers, but through the shared experience of poetry, sound, and image. A quiet, powerful theatrical cosmos that opens up a new view of the world.
The performance dates mark not only a production, but an invitation to surrender to the rhythm of language, nature, and existence—and to rediscover the world, word by word, as Inger Christensen suggests in her work.
March 25, April 12 and 25, May 12, June 5, 2026
https://schauspielhaus.de
