Berlin Karl-Marx-Platz

Berlin, the early 90s. The Wall has fallen, the rules are unclear, everything’s moving at a rapid pace. Nobody knows what comes next. There’s no instruction manual for anyone who’s young in this new era – there’s just their 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 Neukolln. They’re connected by what they’re looking for: a life beyond all of the roles and expectations they were born into, forced into, or which »awaited them«. But the more they try to find themselves, go their own ways, the more they distance themselves from each other. Caught between pride and longing, suspicion and hubris, they end up losing what they had once sought: themselves!

Berlin Karl-Marx-Platz tells of the timeline and playlist of a decade in which everything was for sale and a new zeitgeist threatened to steamroll everything. Following its 2021 world premiere as a musical at the Neukollner Oper, now Berlin Karl-Marx-Platz is coming to the Gorki with a new spirit, new text, new music, a new cast. This second world premiere of a story about love in the frenzy of the 90s, about departures, money and the fleeting light of real freedom, is the story of a time in which almost everything was lost, and yet everything was possible, and an invitation to take another look at what was and at what we should still dream of again today.


Premiere 1/November 2025

Part of 7th Berliner Herbstsalon ЯE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE

Note: The production uses stroboscopic lighting effects, fast and flickering sequences of images, which may have negative effects on light-sensitive viewers.

Foto: Esra Rotthoff
Stage photos: Ute Langkafel