3. Teil der Stadt-Trilogie | Ein letztes Liebeslied von Hakan Savaş Mican
Berlin, the early 90s. The Wall has fallen, the rules are unclear, everything’s moving at a rapid pace. The city is loud, bustling and full of possibilities. Nobody knows what happens next – but everyone is going somewhere. There’s no instruction manual for this younger generation – nothing but the desire to reinvent themselves.
In the midst of this upheaval, two young people fall in love who couldn't be more different: Lisa from Marzahn and Cem from Neukölln.
Lisa lives with her grandfather Paul, once a celebrated East German opera star, who makes ends meet now by singing old pop songs at car dealership openings. Paul dreams of seeing Lisa sing at La Scala in Milan one day. But Lisa has other plans: She doesn't want to pursue classical voice, art, the family tradition – Lisa wants to make money, be successful, she wants everything, and she wants it right now.
Cem’s mother Esma comes from the working class and wants her son to have an independent, self-sufficient life »without oil under his fingernails.« But Cem only wants one thing: to become the Muslim Keith Haring or the Turkish Basquiat of Berlin with his street art. Most importantly he wants to sweep away class barriers with spray paint and »land in the MoMA in New York.«
Between tearing down and taking off, Lisa and Cem defy all expectations. They’re connected by what they’re both looking for: a life beyond the roles they were born or forced into. Lisa and Cem dream of a freedom where your origins don’t matter, where you don’t have to explain anything to be seen. For a moment they believe that such a freedom is possible in each other’s eyes, in a love without expectations, without possession, without a plan. But the more they try to go their own way, the more they distance themselves from one another. Caught between pride and longing, suspicion and hubris, they end up losing what they had fought for: themselves!
Berlin Karl-Marx-Platz tells the story of a decade which began with big dreams and visions and in which love was run over by the pace of the time, in which everything supposedly ended up on the market and could be bought.
After its 2021 world premiere as a musical at the Neuköllner Oper, a new text-based version of Berlin-Karl Marx-Platz is now coming to the Gorki - with new music, a new cast, a new spirit. The second world premiere of a story about love in the frenzy of the 90s, about new beginnings, money and the fleeting glow of true freedom – the story of a time in which almost everything was lost and yet everything was possible – is an invitation to take another look at what was and what we should dream of again today.
Premiere 1/November 2025
Part of 7th Berliner Herbstsalon ЯE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE
