Name: The Theatre of Substitutability
Start: 2026-11-06T13:00:00
End: 2026-11-22T17:00:00
Location: Verschiedene Orte

The fear of being replaceable has always haunted modern humanity. Being confronted with the possibility of our own replaceability fundamentally shakes our sense of self as individuals.

Current developments in AI and automation are reigniting this deep-seated fear on an unprecedented scale. Their unforeseeable consequences are becoming an existential threat.

For millennia, theatre has taught us that everyone is replaceable. Anyone can play any role. Any role can be recast. The ‘Theatre of Replaceability’ brings this age-old principle up to date using contemporary techniques of imitation: with the aid of AI, the voice of every member of the audience is cloned. A speech synthesis programme learns to imitate the sound of their voices almost perfectly within a few minutes. During the performance, audience members encounter their own automated voices and observe their actions and dialogues.

The ‘Theatre of Replaceability’ enables the audience to confront their own replaceability. It allows them to adopt unprecedented perspectives on themselves and on others. Experiencing one’s own replaceability becomes a liberation from the confines of one’s own self. Making oneself replaceable becomes a prerequisite for new forms of relationships between us as human beings. The ‘Theatre of Replaceability’ becomes a lesson for the 21st century.

Each performance lasts 90 minutes and has space for five participants.

Concept, text and direction: Felix Falczyk & Johanna Herschel
Sound & Technical Support: Leon Goltermann

A production by Falczyk/Herschel GbR in cooperation with the Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus and Vierte Welt. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin. With the kind support of the schloss bröllin residency programme. Excerpts from Bertolt Brecht’s *Das Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis* are used with the kind permission of Suhrkamp GmbH, Berlin.