Caspar-Maria Russo

For Wendy there is only one goal: Gala magazine. No one else is able to hand out advice so confidently about themselves and all the world, advice that will certainly not get you through life well. But by the time Wendy will have brutally learned this lesson, her skin will smell of cherry, peach and orange. Be yourself, that's the mantra here, which Tommi also follows, but in a completely different way than the gala advises. For while male potency is discharged in the glossy lifestyle, Tommi longs for its opposite: for softness and deceleration, feelings and vulnerability in a world that is becoming desexualised. Franka loves Tommi's tenderness, but also wonders what is missing when men are no longer "men". The fear of missing out drives her. And Kalle can't believe that Tommi doesn't just follow his instincts. There's nothing better than virility - regardless of the consequences. While Klara dreams of an abortion before she is even pregnant, and Wendy's dreams burst in a bloody way, Franka fatally believes she will always have Tommi safe, and in the end Kalle simply cannot avoid having to put up with himself.

With Gala, the young playwright Caspar-Maria Russo has written a Spring Awakening of the 21st century. The ascriptions of an over-sexualised, body-fixated society are so etched into the young bodies of his characters that they simply do not manage to succeed in shedding them. And even those among them who dare to break new ground have to realise that they fail because their counterparts are simply not ready. A stirring, challenging and provocative piece of theatre about the long and painful path to meeting oneself in a self-determined way and one day being able to disregard any role attribution.