A Year without Summer

• by Florentina Holzinger

Due to scheduling conflicts, this production cannot be included in the program during the Theatertreffen festival period (May 1–17). However, it will be presented as a “TT Encore” in October 2026 at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

A production of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin), Florentina Holzinger/Spirit, and neon lobster in co-production with Tanzquartier Wien, Kampnagel International Summer Festival, Dansenhus Stockholm, DE SINGEL, Maska Ljubljana, asphalt Festival, Rising Melbourne, Factory International Manchester, Divine Comedy International Theater Festival / Łaźnia Nowa Theater (Krakow), and Marvaða Iceland

World premiere: May 21, 2025

Unrelenting darkness, fundamental upheavals, a world shrouded in fog—is this 2025 or 1816, the “Year Without a Summer” that followed the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora? At that time, several writers, including the young Mary Shelley, gathered at Lake Geneva during the cold and stormy summer months and told each other horror stories. Mary invented the scientist Dr. Frankenstein, who dedicates himself to the creation of artificial life.

This is where Florentina Holzinger and the ensemble begin their narrative about health, identity, and decay. In overwhelming imagery, great contrasts collide: young and old, pain and tenderness, human and machine, eternal life and certain death. Known for her spectacular performances blending elements of dance, acrobatics, horror, and music, Holzinger experiments with the musical form for the first time in A Year without Summer, unfolding scenes brimming with crude humor, fragile physicality, and timeless beauty.

Jury Statement

“What does one do in a ‘year without summer,’ when volcanic eruptions and plummeting temperatures cast a shadow over the world? It was during such a summer in 1816 that the then 18-year-old author Mary Shelley conceived the monster Frankenstein. And Florentina Holzinger brings all these events together, embarking with her performers—who this time include a crew of actors, some over 80 years old—on a ride through the history of Homo sapiens’ quest for optimization that is as wild as it is remarkably lucid. Through spectacular and highly complex imagery, she merges the planet’s current state with the decaying biography of the human body and asks—while the robot dogs are already preparing to attack—about the curse and promise of eternal life. Despite the gloom, all of this unfolds in the form of a musically and visually exuberant musical, culminating in the most literal art-fecal orgy in theater history. Never before has the theater witnessed how an utterly kitsch-free utopia emerges from the most unsparing truth imaginable.”

– Christine Wahl for the Theatertreffen Jury

Artistic Team

• Florentina Holzinger – Direction, Choreography, Performance
• Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Stefan Schneider – Musical Direction
• Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Josephinex Ashley Hansis, Noah Reis Ramma, Stefan Schneider – Composition
• Sofia Borges, Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Bláthin Eckhardt, Paige A. Flash, MING, otay:onii, Stefan Schneider – Live Music
• Philipp Hülsenbeck – Additional Music Production, Mixing, Arrangements
• Stefan Schneider, Olivia Oyama – Sound Design
• Fernando Belfiore, Sara Ostertag, Felix Ritter, Michele Rizzo – Dramaturgy
• Leonie Hahn – Dramaturgy, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

By and with

Saioa Alvarez Ruiz, Liane Jil Apel, Andrea Baker, Bear Boy, Sofia Borges, Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Renée Copraij, Beatrice Cordua, Sophie Duncan, Luz de Luna Duran, Bláthin Eckhardt, Renée Eigendorff, Fibi Eyewalker, Paige A. Flash, Florentina Holzinger, Sahel van K, Chris Kringel, Annina Machaz, Achan Malonda, Ingeborg Middendorf, MING, Xana Novais, Netti Nüganen, otay:onii, Constanza Pérez de Lara Bonatti, Sue Shay, Gitti Ulm, Bärbel Warneke, Lucy Wilke

WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES