FIFTY SHADES OF GRETEL

Behind the scenes of a puppet theater – a backstage comedy with pitfalls

The Punch ensemble is on the brink of a precipice: their old shows are no longer popular, and they themselves seem to have fallen out of time. Gretel, the background mastermind of the ensemble, pragmatically demands change from Kasper. We need a new show!

One for the masses and – due to demographic changes – for adults. She proposes the bestseller “Fifty Shades...”. Punch blocks the idea. He doesn’t want to change. Especially as things aren’t going as smooth with Gretel as they used to, and he would rather avoid the relationship work looming on the horizon. Gretel, desperately searching for solutions, sets off to the underworld... To the devil in the slapstick studio.

Meanwhile, the robbers, Seppel, and Crocodile start a revolt back at home. The now-demented Grandmother is afraid of change and flees to the shelter of simple right-wing populist truths. On stage, she demands the return of the German motherwort. The ensemble now lacks all its female characters, and the disintegration continues...

A potpourri of German prototypes collides with the 21st century.