hysteria

The theatre group hysteria consists of around fifteen young, theatre-enthusiastic people who have been bringing stories to the stage together since 2023. In our productions, we focus in particular on perspectives that are often overlooked, marginalised or not heard in society. At the same time, we devote ourselves to material and texts that challenge us artistically and inspire us personally. In recent years, we have staged, among other works, "Die Grille" by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer (with funding from the Cultural Fund of the University of Münster), "Elektra" by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, as well as monologues by Ingrid Lausund.

We are currently working on our new theatre project "Franz, the Axe and the Frozen Sea". In it, we approach Franz Kafka, his work and his influence in a kaleidoscopic way: literary texts and biographical fragments enter into dialogue with one another – not least against the backdrop of a literary-studies perspective – and are artistically re-examined on stage. But what connects a theatre group like hysteria with an author as long-canonised as Franz Kafka? For all the necessary critical engagement with Kafka and his era, one central commonality emerges: both in Kafka's texts and in our theatrical work, the gaze repeatedly falls on the excluded, the overlooked and the unheard. At the centre of his works are often figures who find no fixed place in their environment, who fail in the face of inscrutable power structures, social orders, institutions or even language itself. They try to be heard and understood, while at the same time experiencing just how difficult communication, belonging and self-determination can be under such conditions. Kafka's texts thus lay bare mechanisms of exclusion, power and heteronomy. This is precisely where our production sets in: we neither wish to explain Kafka biographically in full nor to interpret his texts definitively, but rather to encounter them on stage and make them newly audible for our present day. Already this September, "Franz, the Axe and the Frozen Sea" will come to the stage (20 September 2026, 7 p.m.; 22 September 2026, 6 p.m.; 25 September 2026, 7 p.m.; reservations at: theatergruppehysteria@gmail.com).

We meet every Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Studiobühne Münster (Domplatz 23) to rehearse together, try things out and develop new ideas. New people are always warmly invited to drop by and get involved – prior experience is not required. Nor is being enrolled at the university a prerequisite.

Contact: studiobuehne@uni-muenster.de