Ersan Mondtag’s new theatre production, DAS ROTE HAUS, had its world premiere on October 2, 2025, at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and will run for audiences from October 2–19, 2025!
Presented as part of the 7th Berliner Herbstsalon under the program “ЯE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE,” the production explores themes of migration, remembrance, and belonging through the lens of spatial memory. Developed by Till Briegleb and Ersan Mondtag in collaboration with Saliha Bilal, Aslı Öngören, Mefharet Sayınbatur, Arda and Meriç Temuçin, Nica Sultana Vasiliou, and Şafak Yüreklik, the piece also draws on motifs from Emine Sevgi Özdamar’s novels The Bridge of the Golden Horn and Strange Stars Stare at the Earth.
At its center stands Stresemannstraße 30, a historic building layered with migrant women’s stories. Once a Prussian boarding school in the 19th century, it later became dormitories for Turkish women recruited by Telefunken in the 1960s. Among them was Özdamar, whose memories of those years—literary testaments of longing and freedom—resonate throughout the production. Mondtag’s staging intertwines past, present, and a dystopian future, bringing these histories vividly back to life.
With live music performed by the Seyyare – Anatolian Women’s Choir directed by Sema Moritz, DAS ROTE HAUS creates an atmosphere both melancholic and utopian. The play evokes the solidarity and dreams that once grew in shared kitchens and narrow corridors, while simultaneously reflecting on contemporary Germany’s struggles with respect and recognition.
Curated by Shermin Langhoff, this special production brings together actors of different generations on one stage to trace forgotten stories and confront the audience with a haunting question: Which stories are remembered, and which sink into silence?
