von Kay Matter
DIRECTED BY: Dennis Nolden
PFAUEN KAMMER
WORLD PREMIERE UNO: 03.10.2025
Driving to visit relatives in Italy, still in transition, with a voice squeaking from Testogel and peach fuzz on the upper lip?! Phew. Matteo dreads facing his five quasi-grandmothers and all the others in the village who still know him as Isabella, dreads their gazes and comments. But he wants to spend time with his ailing father, Aldo, so they embark on a joint road trip that evolves into a touching exploration of masculinity and queerness. While Matteo experiences a second puberty, oscillating between gender euphoria and dysphoria, Aldo feels his own strength waning. With fragile bodies, they struggle for recognition and understanding in each other's reflections – until suddenly everything around them begins to waver. No sooner do they arrive than the village mutates into a creepy ghost town. Matteo can't sleep. Monstrous apparitions, dazzling creatures drive him out into the night. They know what they want. And somehow, they seem familiar to Matteo... Are they after him? Matteo's dark circles speak volumes. Who is actually hunting whom here? Suddenly, they are everywhere: uninhibited and magnificent, they make the village glow.
Swiss author Kay Matter has received a play commission from the Schauspielhaus Zürich, which will take shape as a three-part series over the course of the season, brought to the stage by three exciting and diverse directorial teams. A high-caliber new generation of talent collaborates to tell a story of an ambivalent father-child relationship, of self-confidence and shame, of frustration and unconditional love.