As part of the European Culture Days 2018, the young cultural association zeug und quer e. V. the musical theater ritual “Madame Lenin”. In the 90-minute performance, the “utopia” of the revolution is questioned: are revolutions glorified afterwards? With all the innovations (utopia of the “new man”, technification, idea of progress…), don't we overlook the negative effects of the revolution? And along with them those left behind, those left behind by progress, those striving in a different direction, those who don't conform to ideology...?


Madame Lenin, "protagonist" of the play of the same name by Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922), is a prisoner in a psychiatric institution against her will. She doesn't speak and avoids other people. The original text is consistently designed as an introspection - 13 different "voices" take the place of the characters. They reflect the sensations and thoughts of Madame Lenin. Your heart is expressed. The viewers share in their pain, their fears, their treatment — and become part of Madame Lenin...


Madame Lenin is the focus of a musical and scenic performance that explores transitions and boundaries: semantically understandable language becomes transrational sound, "normality" becomes "crazy". Madame Lenin is a "crazy" - at least in the eyes of her treating doctor. But when does normality actually go “crazy” and thus become a problem that needs to be dealt with?
The text template questions norms and crosses borders - and calls for new reception venues. The topic - deviations from the norm - is more topical than ever, in a present in which pressure to perform, anorexia, burn-outs want to be conspicuously overlooked.