About the work
“The truest True Crime” is a new play by the Berlin playwright Anne Jelena Schulte, subtitled “Eine Geschichte vom Überleben” (“A Story of Survival”). Its world premiere is announced for 11 December 2026 at the Münchner Kammerspiele, directed by Anna-Sophie Mahler, who already staged the premiere of Schulte’s “La Bohème // Träume” at Schauspiel Leipzig in 2021.
Plot
The material comes from Schulte's own story: a young woman on her way home is pulled off her bicycle and raped in the open street; the perpetrator escapes, and the investigation stalls for around ten years as a cold case. The play shows how she stands up to the indifference of the authorities, starts investigating herself and eventually helps to bring a serial offender to justice. On stage her voice is carried and multiplied by a chorus.
Cultural significance
The play reverses the usual perspective of the true crime genre, which tends to centre on the crime and the perpetrator, and tells the story from the survivor's point of view – with humour, anger and music, without leaving out the pain. In doing so, Schulte, whose theatre texts mostly grow out of research and conversations, links a personal experience with questions of violence, justice and public perception.