Albert Ostermaier's latest play "Munich Machine" will be staged as a furious stage experience at the Residenztheater under the direction of Ersan Mondtag. Inspired by the life and work of cult filmmaker Klaus Lemke, a fast-paced journey through the history of Munich unfolds - a declaration of love and at the same time a critical reflection on a city in transition.
A UFO in the shape of a white sausage lands in front of the Bavarian State Chancellery: movie or reality? For Schwabing film poet Klaus Lemke, it makes no difference. An extraterrestrial emerges from the spaceship - in search of a social utopia for his home planet. Together with Lemke, he embarks on a fast-paced journey through Munich's history: from the young Franz Josef Strauss to Lenin in the Schelling Salon, from the Schwabing riots to the Soviet Republic.
Albert Ostermaier's play is both an homage and a reckoning - a theatrical triptych about the myth of Munich: a city of contrasts, glamor and history.
"Here in Munich, my strip club, Schillerstraße, Klassiker, Goethestraße, Gomorra and Paradies, techno, punk and Zwiefacher, protest and party, Bayern and Babylon, Gerd Müller and the Bomber, everything you could never think of together stands here side by side like one fitness machine next to the other."
With "Munich Machine", the celebrated artist Ersan Mondtag makes his directorial debut at the Residenztheater. The play is both a wild panorama of the times, a declaration of love to Klaus Lemke - and a look at what Munich once was, is and could be.
World premiere February 6, 2026
