About the work
Zum Lachen in den Keller is an interdisciplinary music, dance and theatre production by Stuttgart's LABYRINTH Theater involving young people with and without experiences of forced migration. The artistic team includes Patrizia Birkenberg for project direction and concept and Thea Marie Eilers for theatre education and text development. The production was selected for the 2026 Theatertreffen der Jugend and performed at Haus der Berliner Festspiele on 2 June 2026.
Plot
A cellar becomes both a physical location and an internal landscape. People arrive there to sort drink crates, meet someone secretly, satisfy their hunger or hide. Yet the cellar begins to expose memories, fears and experiences of loss. Everyday tasks mix with celebration, dance, music and puppetry. The central question is what it means to grow up, especially for young people whose biographies include migration or forced displacement.
Cultural significance
The project combines artistic work with young people from different backgrounds and theatre practices informed by trauma-sensitive pedagogy. Its selection for the Theatertreffen der Jugend gave the production national recognition. It makes individual experiences of displacement, loss and shame visible without reducing participants to documentary testimony, instead transforming those experiences through music, dance, theatre and puppetry.