About the work
“Lass uns miteinander reden” (“Let's Talk to Each Other”) is a new play by the Braunschweig-born filmmaker and writer Wenzel Storch, who also directs it. Its world premiere is scheduled for 18 December 2026 in the Kleines Haus of Schauspiel Köln. Storch had previously written and directed “Komm in meinen Wigwam” (2014) and “Das Maschinengewehr Gottes” (2015) at Theater Dortmund; his list of works already includes a radio play titled “Laß uns miteinander reden” for 2009.
Plot
The play is set in West Germany in 1970 and revolves around a radio programme billed as the first listeners' forum in West German broadcasting. At the microphone sits 14-year-old Juliane, who gives teenagers and children on the verge of puberty frank answers to their delicate questions about growing up, sometimes in song. She is assisted by the Catholic priest Father Leppich, known as the “Machine Gun of God”.
Cultural significance
Since his Dortmund productions, Storch has explored on stage the Catholic moral and sex-education literature of the early Federal Republic. The priest refers to the Jesuit Johannes Leppich (1915–1992), who became known as a street preacher in the 1950s and 1960s and bore this nickname; Storch had already devoted “Das Maschinengewehr Gottes” to him.