Performance by Paper Tiger Theater Studio
The present seems to be in a state of limbo. China’s ascent is redefining Asia, and with it, Europe. Is the Western-dominated world order under threat? Will a conflict in Eurasia constitute the world’s ‘last great war’?
Image gallery
Aufführung des Stücks "Luftmasse" von Paper Tiger Theater Studio beim Theater der Welt Festival in Chemnitz
A hundred years ago, Alfred Döblin described these conditions in his futuristic novel Mountains Oceans Giants as a ’factual fantasy’: a relentless chain of climate catastrophes and continental drift, as well as crises, pandemics, and global economic crises. In 1924, Döblin offered a vision of a war between Europe and Asia and Europe’s great exodus to Greenland.
Now, the Sino-German Paper Tiger Theater Studio has adapted this material for the stage. The performance, co-produced with the festival Theater der Welt Chemnitz 2026, creates a world of images and sound featuring plenty of movement and using means that are both astonishingly simple and sensuous.
The visual concept is by China’s most famous contemporary artist, Ai Weiwei. Five dancers, performers and singers from China and Germany work with videography and spatial design. Their bodies, shaped by diverse cultural backgrounds and contemporary discourses, embody the conflicting emotions between bleak visions of the future and the reality of the present. Chinese, German, English and other languages from various cultures interweave to form a multi-layered tapestry of sound.
The Paper Tiger Theater Studio ensemble exists between worlds. Its productions emerge from a constant dialogue between German and Chinese history and stories. In Berlin, it most recently presented its restaurant project 10,000 Noodles for Kafka and, as a commissioned production for the Humboldt Forum, Revolution. The Foe of an Arrow Wound.
Participants
- With Elena Bechter, Yanan Wang, Sibo Sheyang, Jingwen Li, Fu-Hsuan Shih, Tian Gebing
- Director: Tian Gebing
- Choreography, Producer: Yanan Wang
- Music: Piotr Kurek
- Dramaturge: Christoph Lepschy
- Assistant Directors, Interpreters: Jingwen Li, Yuchen Xie
- Technical Direction: Wang Tiange
- Light Design: Zhao Tong
- Szenography: Paper Tiger Theater Studio
- Video: Xin Tong
- Intern: Song Yuke
- Visual Concept: Ai Weiwei
- Text: Tian Gebing
Performance rights for the excerpts from Alfred Döblin’s Mountains Oceans Giants are held by Gustav Kiepenheuer Bühnenvertriebs GmbH, Berlin
With generous support of: Zhong Ben Zhi, AWW Germany GmbH, Shenzhen Ming Culture Communication Co. LTD
Koproduktion: Festival Theater der Welt Chemnitz 2026, Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss, Paper Tiger Theater Studio
- 20 EUR / reduced 10 EUR - Tickets available soon
- Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer.
- English and Mandarin with German and English surtitles
- Ground Floor, Schlüter Courtyard, Hall 1, Ground Floor
- Belongs to: Transkontinentale 2026
