This is our motto for the new season. What defines us as a society? Which stories are we based on? Which narratives define us today, which echo chambers and debates influence us? What do we need to tolerate or what should we discuss when “We” encounter each other? Of course, there will also be singing and music, but most of all, we will be addressing questions around ‘Us’ in the context of this motto, which will continue beyond this season.

These issues need a broader discussion: They apply to both past and present times, they are a search for origins and references, a search for new questions and familiar narratives, for negotiations and conflicts, contradictions and aspirations.

But of course, our “Songs of We” also mean singing in the sense of music, as for instance in the production “Was ihr wollt (Tortured Lover's Version)”, where Shakespeare will meet the music of Taylor Swift, or in the opening event of our venue Residenz, featuring ChorAlle and “Sound of Us”.

In classical literature, the term ‘canto’ (from the Italian ‘cantare’, or singing) defines a small section within a great narrative – and this is an apt description of what the theatre allows us to do: to cast a focussed artistic glance at a particular topic, a conflict, an issue that society is concerned with – whether this concern is new or centuries-old. With its specific perspective and its art form, the theatre is able to contextualise and connect the old with the new, or reconsult an earlier source of answers. Old differences may become visible, connections and similarities or perhaps new questions to be directed at the old work.
In this spirit, director Pia Richter will couple Shakespeare with Taylor Swift on the Main Stage, Nuran David Calis will stage Schiller’s “Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans)”, and Thomas Köck will develop a commissioned work for Schauspiel Leipzig. It is entitled “deutsche Märchen (German fairytales)” and will be a journey into the world of German myths and tales, to be directed by Elsa-Sophie Jach.

Plays like “Woyzeck” and “Richard III”, “Romeo and Juliet” or Kleist’s “Der zerbrochne Krug (The Broken Jug)” are not only great classics but also provide echo chambers for the present times: The songs of the past not only resonate within them – it rather seems as if they haven’t aged or all. “Richard III” talks about power politics, about looking away and playing along in a way that exposes the structures and dynamics of the our times. In his “Broken Jug”, Heinrich Kleist deals with the way society turns a blind eye from a very different issue that occurs to this day – with a focus on the ability of language to conceal and reveal at the same time.

In his play “Girschkarten”, commissioned by Schauspiel Leipzig, Lukas Rietzschel places a very contemporary family into their inherited garden, using the backdrop of Anton Chekhov’s “Kirschgarten (Cherry Orchard)”. Similar to Chekhov’s play, it deals with the great longing for what is past in the face of the uncertainties of the present. But it is also about the challenges of tolerating the ‘We’, and about several different turning-points where the family became distant from each other – both long ago and very recently.
Tolerating the ‘We’ as a society that has to constantly encounter and renegotiate each other’s individualities, interests and contrasts is a recurring topic in the programme of our Diskothek-venue, as for instance in Sivan Ben Yishai’s “Liebe/Eine argumentative Übung”.

Doris Uhlich, whose works have had a formative influence on the programme of Residenz, will explore one of the vital questions of our times in “GAP”: the issue of affordable housing – and she look at this question together with a team that includes people who have no home.

“Bu sözler bizim — Die Worte gehören uns” by Yade Yasemin Önder at Diskothek is an equally theatrical and poetical narrative about how the absent and the past can determine the ‘We’ of a family. In its bilingualism, German and Turkish, the play quite naturally describes an aspect of the diversity of coexistence in our present times. The same goes for Raphaela Bardutzky’s “Altbau in zentraler Lage”, which will be staged in both German spoken and sign language – as well as for “fünf minuten stille” by Leo Meier.

A ‘We’ is never alone, after all – and so quite a few productions and projects will once again be created in cooperation with others: Leipzig’s Museum of City History will continue to host its guided “Woyzeck”-tour in the context of our production, “Bu sözler bizim – Die Worte gehören uns” will be produced in cooperation with WIENER WORTSTAETTEN. And the festival “4+1”, which is to take place in June 2026, will once again assemble the issues and voices of the emerging talents from German-language writing academies in Leipzig and present them in readings featuring the acting company and in discussions with you, our audience. They will also be embedded in the Diskothek’s repertoire, which is still a rarity in the landscape of German-language theatre today in its concentration on contemporary drama. The programme of the Residenz-venue is based exclusively on cooperation, both newly created and long established, with the independent scenes of Leipzig, Germany and Europe.

These ‘Songs of We’ will continue beyond the season of 2025/26 as the motto for the following season, which will be the final one for Artistic Director Enrico Lübbe and his team at Schauspiel Leipzig: The 2026/27 season will open with another major play from the canon of ancient theatre, once again featuring a large-scale chorus consisting of people from Leipzig’s urban society.
What makes us a ‘We’? What characterises all of us, what determines us, what concerns us as a society? We hope that you are interested and excited to pursue these questions with us for the coming two seasons at Schauspiel Leipzig. We cordially invite you to join us.