Young Theatre

Martin Baltscheit

Schneewittchen darf nicht sterben

What do you do with a performance if the actors suddenly go on strike or are elsewhere? The director wants to cancel; the technician has already turned off the lights. Snow White Deluxe has to be cancelled, the audience is being sent home. But the audience doesn’t want to leave. A girl comes forward and thinks that the performance should still happen: if Snow White isn’t there, you could just invent another story. The director agrees. He gets Angelika on stage, and they playfully start inventing a story taken from real life – their own. Angelika, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy department store owner, has everything she wants and more. But she wants to kill herself. Only why?
The whole company gets involved in the play. They contribute their knowledge, take over different parts and search for the crux of the matter. Ben is brought in, a spectator just like Angelika, also sixteen. Ben’s story is about his unemployed father.

The play melts two stories into one. Using all the tools of theatre, it is told with a lot of humour and some feeling. One also gets to know quite a bit about theatre. But this isn’t a play in a play, but theatre becoming reality and reality only being real through theatre.

2 F, 4 M

World Premiere: 09.10.2005 · Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Kinder- und Jugendtheater · Directed by: Klaus-Peter Fischer

Production history

All Premieres
09
Oktober 2005
Martin Baltscheit

Schneewittchen darf nicht sterben

Young Theatre

UA

Theatre Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf
10
Oktober 2008
Martin Baltscheit

Schneewittchen darf nicht sterben

Young Theatre

Directed by Tilo Esche
22
Mai 2026
Martin Baltscheit

Schneewittchen darf nicht sterben

Young Theatre

Directed by Johann Stock

More plays

All plays

Young Theatre

Martin Baltscheit

Der Winterzirkus

3 F, 1 M, diverse Tiere

Laika, the singing dog with the accordion, invites all the animals of the city to the winter circus on Christmas Eve. Anna was told about the winter circus by her animal-loving aunt Ruth, but her amazement grows when she is suddenly able to understand the language of animals shortly before Christmas. She is grateful to get away from her family’s Christmas preparations, the boring cookie baking, the childish rituals and especially the question about Santa. Even though she is only nine years old, Anna knows that this is only humbug and commerce. On Christmas Eve, Anna discovers two tickets for the winter circus on her pillow and, when she tries to sneak out, Aunt Ruth suddenly appears in her room and wants to accompany her. Together with hundreds of animals they trudge through the snow, in the guise of a mouse and a cat. The winter circus opens its doors.

The mysterious winter circus, ominous Aunt Ruth, the disguised Santa, a hedgehog searching for the meaning of life, flippant dad, Christmassy cheerful mom and insecure Anna make for a touching answer to the question of whether Santa, whether the unexplainable really exists.

“no matter what you believe/ and no matter who likes it/
if it serves life/ it fits into this world”

Der Winterzirkus is a wonderful background for festive fireworks of magic, sugary cookies and circus charms. The radio play was broadcast by Radio Berlin Brandenburg in 2003.

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