The Hexenberg Ensemble transforms *The Little Match Girl* and *The Ugly Duckling* into a darkly humorous, cheeky evening of fairy tales full of surprising twists – strictly for adults only.
Image gallery
Märchen im Glaspalast von und mit dem Hexenberg Ensemble: Das kleine hässliche Entlein
Märchen im Glaspalast von und mit dem Hexenberg Ensemble: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
The Little Match Girl:
New Year’s Eve. Cold, wind, a girl without shoes. Her slippers are gone, her matches unsold. She lights them, and with every flame a door opens. In the glow of the matches, it is not just warmth that awaits. Encounters await: with herself, with her mother, with her father. What appears behind the doors is neither a vision nor a consolation, but a conversation that was long overdue.
The production takes Andersen’s fairy tale as its starting point for a story about what is passed down between generations: not as a heavy burden, but as a game with an open ending. The roast, the tree and the festive gathering are merely a backdrop here for something greater: the desire to be seen.
The Ugly Duckling
Particularly today, in a world that oscillates between individualism and egalitarianism, Hans Christian Andersen’s *The Ugly Duckling*, directed by long-standing ensemble member Michael Schwager, takes on new relevance. For adults, it is a confrontation with their own judgements, with exclusion and the courage to determine one’s own destiny. For children, it offers comfort and guidance – an invitation to recognise their own difference as a strength.
A fairy tale for ‘ducks big and small’ that illuminates the depths and hopes of human existence with wit, poetry and sincerity. A play that encourages us to celebrate our own uniqueness – and to recognise the unfamiliar not as a threat, but as an enrichment.
- For adults only – admission from 14 years of age
Additional information
Dates
December 2026
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