The Sardine in the Elevator
by and with Rafaela Schwarzer

An elevator that is in free fall and then gets stuck?! A scenario full of fear and horror! Rafaela Schwarzer takes us into the exciting world of this woman trapped in this unimaginable situation. Her emotions traverse a wide spectrum, from grotesque situational comedy to painful goodbyes and delicate hopes for rescue.
What makes life so valuable and worth living in such threatening moments? Will she ever see the daylight again? The uncertainty leaves one breathless...
This piece is more than just a play; it is a poignant declaration of love for life, a gripping battle between despair and the unconquerable power of hope.

Dates in September:
Fri + Sat on the 6th, 7th, 13th, 20th, 21st at 8 PM + Sun on the 8th, 15th, 22nd at 6 PM

Five friends are stuck: no talent, no drive, no job. They are neither beautiful nor young, and they realize that they don't have much to offer visually. Amid their misery of mountains of debt and marital wreckage, they come up with a lifesaving idea one evening in a bar and make the courageous decision to start a new existence. As "The Full Monty," they want to offer male stripping. The all-important question arises in this turbulent comedy:

All or nothing?

Stripping can't be that hard, the unsuccessful friends sense their chance for quick money. Striptease starts as fun, but soon becomes hard work. However, the new task not only challenges their masculinity but also puts the bond of their friendship to a tough test. But our quirky antiheroes must persevere. After clumsy attempts, they seek help from Lulu, train hard daily, which is already hilariously funny – until a breathtaking show is created that is supposed to delight women with applause.

Get ready for a top-of-the-line girls' night out for women and men – because the journey is the destination!

6:30 PM

Five friends are stuck: no talent, no drive, no job. They are neither beautiful nor young, and they realize that they don't have much to offer visually. Amid their misery of mountains of debt and marital wreckage, they come up with a lifesaving idea one evening in a bar and make the courageous decision to start a new existence. As "The Full Monty," they want to offer male stripping. The all-important question arises in this turbulent comedy:

All or nothing?

Stripping can't be that hard, the unsuccessful friends sense their chance for quick money. Striptease starts as fun, but soon becomes hard work. However, the new task not only challenges their masculinity but also puts the bond of their friendship to a tough test. But our quirky antiheroes must persevere. After clumsy attempts, they seek help from Lulu, train hard daily, which is already hilariously funny – until a breathtaking show is created that is supposed to delight women with applause.

Get ready for a top-of-the-line girls' night out for women and men – because the journey is the destination!

6:30 PM

Heinz Janisch is a master of the short form: with his special gift of viewing the world through the eyes of children and turning ordinary things in surprising and cheeky ways, he delights both children and adults alike. Imaginative and multifaceted, the author, born in 1960 in Güssing, Burgenland, playfully opens worlds that resonate poetically. With Heinz Janisch, the jury is honoring a children's lyricist for the first time.

Heinz Janisch studied German studies and journalism in Vienna, where he also lives today. Since 1982, he has been working with ORF Radio and designing and moderating radio programs. He writes for both children and adults. He has received numerous awards for his books, including the Bologna Ragazzi Award and the Austrian Children's and Youth Book Prize. In 2024, he was awarded the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, thus honoring his lifetime work.

As part of the Kiel Liliencron Lectureship 2025, the Liliencron Young Talent Award for Poetry from Schleswig-Holstein will also be presented for the second time. The award winner, selected during a project seminar at the Institute for Modern German Literature and Media at CAU Kiel, is the author Dara Brexendorf, who lives in Kiel.

Her focus in writing lies on multimedia works that bridge prose, poetry, and imagery. In April 2023, her story Restwärme was published by SuKuLTuR. Since 2015, she has been a co-editor of the literature magazine Der Schnipsel.

Organizer: Literaturhaus SH / Institute for Modern German Literature and Media at CAU Kiel with kind support from the Friends of Literaturhaus SH

Illustration © Linda Wolfsgruber | Jungbrunnen Verlag

Admission: 18:30 Uhr

Opening Lecture: 27th Liliencron Lectureship to Heinz Janisch & Awarding of the Liliencron Young Talent Prize to Dara Brexendorf

Heinz Janisch is a master of the short form: with his special gift for viewing the world through the eyes of children and turning ordinary things in surprising, cheeky ways, he delights both children and adults alike. Imaginative and multifaceted, the author born in 1960 in Güssing, Burgenland, playfully opens worlds that create a poetic resonance. With Heinz Janisch, the jury is awarding a children's lyricist for the first time.

Heinz Janisch studied German philology and journalism in Vienna, where he also lives today. Since 1982, he has been working at ORF radio and has been designing and moderating radio programs. He writes for both children and adults. His books have received numerous awards, including the Bologna Ragazzi Award and the Austrian Children’s and Youth Book Prize. In 2024, he was awarded the international Hans Christian Andersen Prize, honoring his life's work.

As part of the Kiel Liliencron Lectureship 2025, the Liliencron Young Talent Prize for poetry from Schleswig-Holstein will also be awarded for the second time. The awardee of the prize, which is granted as part of a project seminar of the Institute for Modern German Literature and Media at CAU Kiel, is the author Dara Brexendorf, who lives in Kiel. Her focus in writing is on multimedia works between prose, poetry, and images. In April 2023, her narrative Restwärme was published by SuKuLTuR. Since 2015, she has been a co-editor of the literary magazine Der Schnipsel.

Admission: 12,- / 8,- € plus fee

Organizer: Literaturhaus SH / Institute for Modern German Literature and Media at CAU Kiel with kind support from the Friends of Literaturhaus SH

Lilo Wanders has shown us with her legendary television show "True Love" time and time again: laughter and sex are the best prerequisites for lasting health and a long life.

The grande dame of pop culture has experienced a lot and even more. Lilo tells with subtle humor and sometimes surprisingly bluntly about her insights and findings about the most beautiful thing in the world.

The second part of the evening will be intense and enlightening... Lilo answers all questions, even the most private ones that the audience writes down during the intermission!

A liberating evening that leaves nothing unsaid and opens hearts!

Photo@MichaelReh

6:45 PM

»Until Everything Burns« - Hélène Laurain explores the possibilities of storytelling about our time in her debut novel - radically and poetically.

Laetitia is obsessed with the climate catastrophe and horrified by the plan to bury radioactive waste from France, Germany, and Luxembourg in her home region of Lorraine. So she orchestrates a spectacular coup with her friends, which is just a taste of the final inferno. Hélène Laurain's debut novel, written in one breath, tells of the wishes, hopes, and fears of a generation that believes it has lost the battle against climate change - and yet chooses activism.

The German texts will be read by students of the Romance Studies Seminar at CAU.

Hélène Laurain, born in Metz in 1988, studied political science and Arabic in France and Germany, as well as creative writing at the Université Paris VIII. »Until Everything Burns« | »Partout le feu« (translated from French by Isabel Kupski) is her first novel, with which she was a guest at the European Festival of Debut Novels in 2023.

Admission: 12,– / 8,– plus fees

Organizer: Literaturhaus SH / Centre Culturel Français / Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft SH / Romance Studies Seminar CAU Kiel

Laetitia is obsessed with the climate catastrophe and horrified by the plan to bury radioactive waste from France, Germany, and Luxembourg in her home region of Lorraine. So she and her friends stage a spectacular coup that is just a taste of the final inferno.

Hélène Laurain's debut novel, written in one breath, tells of the wishes, hopes, and fears of a generation that believes it has lost the fight against climate change – and yet chooses activism.

Hélène Laurain, born in Metz in 1988, studied political science and Arabic in France and Germany, as well as creative writing at the Université Paris VIII. »Bis alles brennt« | »Partout le feu« (translated from French by Isabel Kupski) is her first novel, with which she was a guest at the European Festival of the Debut Novel in 2023.

Students from the Romance Studies Seminar at CAU will read the German texts.

Organizer: Literaturhaus Schleswig-Holstein in cooperation with the Centre Culturel Français, the Franco-German Society SH, and the Romance Studies Seminar CAU Kiel

Photo © Alexander Abdelilah

Admission: 6:30 PM

The Sardine in the Elevator
by and with Rafaela Schwarzer

An elevator that is in free fall and then gets stuck?! A scenario full of fear and horror! Rafaela Schwarzer takes us into the exciting world of this woman trapped in this unimaginable situation. Her emotions traverse a wide spectrum, from grotesque situational comedy to painful goodbyes and delicate hopes for rescue.
What makes life so valuable and worth living in such threatening moments? Will she ever see the daylight again? The uncertainty leaves one breathless...
This piece is more than just a play; it is a poignant declaration of love for life, a gripping battle between despair and the unconquerable power of hope.

Dates in September:
Fri + Sat on the 6th, 7th, 13th, 20th, 21st at 8 PM + Sun on the 8th, 15th, 22nd at 6 PM

The high art of ballet continues to be celebrated all over the world. A enchanting sample of this is provided by “Royal Classical Ballet”.

Schwanensee - again and again Schwanensee

Classical ballet - what do you think of first? In nine out of ten cases, the image of a delicate dancer in a shimmering white tutu, framed by white feathers, arises in the mind’s eye. Added to that is a noble prince who falls immortally in love with the dream being... Unaware of the origins, yet the same image from Schwanensee appears again and again. This one concept embodies what classic ballet means to many - back then as today.

Over 100 years of undisputed popularity with the international audience makes Schwanensee one of the most beloved works from the classical ballet repertoire! An outstanding masterpiece of its kind. One can become addicted to Schwanensee. "Those who do not know Schwanensee cannot understand ballet at all," say ballet critics.

"It is a love that no one needs to be ashamed of, for nowhere else has classical ballet reached such artistic perfection as in this neo-romantic choreography by Lew Iwanow" (Horst Koegler)

This applies to ballet in general and to Schwanensee in particular: Love and longing, loneliness and jealousy, anger, pain, and happiness - all the great emotions are to be portrayed with body language so fervently and on a grand scale that one would never believe the spoken word could convey it. "If I could express in words what I feel, I would not need to dance." This is how the famous Margot Fonteyn summarized it in a few words.

The ballet tells the story of Prince Siegfried, Princess Odette, and the sorcerer Rothbart, of longing, loneliness, jealousy, anger, pain, happiness, and above all, the triumph of love over evil, in the finest traditional ballet language.

The story of the swan princess Odette is known all over the world:

A young prince is to marry in order to preserve the dynasty. However, Prince Siegfried unfortunately falls in love not with one of the intended young ladies, but with a magical foreign girl to whom he swears eternal fidelity. The beautiful Odette, however, is under an evil spell and can only take human form at night for a few hours. The sorcerer Rothbart then makes his own daughter appear in the form of Odette at a lavish ball in the castle to deceive the prince. The blinded prince inadvertently breaks his vow of fidelity. When he realizes this, he begs for forgiveness, which is granted to him. In the end, he even defeats the evil sorcerer himself, thus completing the triumph of love.

For young and old, it is a welcome opportunity to experience the unique perfection of ballet and effortlessly find access to the enchanting world of ballet.

With their floating lightness and elegance, the ballet dancers make the exact work and athletic rigor that lies behind the performance forgettable. With precise wingbeats, Royal Classical Ballet transports you into a world of weightlessness and poetry.

Supreme perfection and impressive aesthetics combine to create a top-tier ballet experience.

Doors open: 6:00 PM

The event has been cancelled.

Five friends are stuck: no talent, no drive, no job. They are neither beautiful nor young, and they realize that they don't have much to offer visually. Amid their misery of mountains of debt and marital wreckage, they come up with a lifesaving idea one evening in a bar and make the courageous decision to start a new existence. As "The Full Monty," they want to offer male stripping. The all-important question arises in this turbulent comedy:

All or nothing?

Stripping can't be that hard, the unsuccessful friends sense their chance for quick money. Striptease starts as fun, but soon becomes hard work. However, the new task not only challenges their masculinity but also puts the bond of their friendship to a tough test. But our quirky antiheroes must persevere. After clumsy attempts, they seek help from Lulu, train hard daily, which is already hilariously funny – until a breathtaking show is created that is supposed to delight women with applause.

Get ready for a top-of-the-line girls' night out for women and men – because the journey is the destination!

6:30 PM

Five friends are stuck: no talent, no drive, no job. They are neither beautiful nor young, and they realize that they don't have much to offer visually. Amid their misery of mountains of debt and marital wreckage, they come up with a lifesaving idea one evening in a bar and make the courageous decision to start a new existence. As "The Full Monty," they want to offer male stripping. The all-important question arises in this turbulent comedy:

All or nothing?

Stripping can't be that hard, the unsuccessful friends sense their chance for quick money. Striptease starts as fun, but soon becomes hard work. However, the new task not only challenges their masculinity but also puts the bond of their friendship to a tough test. But our quirky antiheroes must persevere. After clumsy attempts, they seek help from Lulu, train hard daily, which is already hilariously funny – until a breathtaking show is created that is supposed to delight women with applause.

Get ready for a top-of-the-line girls' night out for women and men – because the journey is the destination!

6:30 PM

The Sardine in the Elevator
by and with Rafaela Schwarzer

An elevator that is in free fall and then gets stuck?! A scenario full of fear and horror! Rafaela Schwarzer takes us into the exciting world of this woman trapped in this unimaginable situation. Her emotions traverse a wide spectrum, from grotesque situational comedy to painful goodbyes and delicate hopes for rescue.
What makes life so valuable and worth living in such threatening moments? Will she ever see the daylight again? The uncertainty leaves one breathless...
This piece is more than just a play; it is a poignant declaration of love for life, a gripping battle between despair and the unconquerable power of hope.

Dates in September:
Fri + Sat on the 6th, 7th, 13th, 20th, 21st at 8 PM + Sun on the 8th, 15th, 22nd at 6 PM

Five friends are stuck: no talent, no drive, no job. They are neither beautiful nor young, and they realize that they don't have much to offer visually. Amid their misery of mountains of debt and marital wreckage, they come up with a lifesaving idea one evening in a bar and make the courageous decision to start a new existence. As "The Full Monty," they want to offer male stripping. The all-important question arises in this turbulent comedy:

All or nothing?

Stripping can't be that hard, the unsuccessful friends sense their chance for quick money. Striptease starts as fun, but soon becomes hard work. However, the new task not only challenges their masculinity but also puts the bond of their friendship to a tough test. But our quirky antiheroes must persevere. After clumsy attempts, they seek help from Lulu, train hard daily, which is already hilariously funny – until a breathtaking show is created that is supposed to delight women with applause.

Get ready for a top-of-the-line girls' night out for women and men – because the journey is the destination!

6:30 PM

The new cabaret program by Frank Lüdecke

Do you need assisted thinking? Wonderful! Frank Lüdecke has been thinking about this world for so long, you can simply trust his opinion. That is convenient. Especially in these confusing, tumultuous times. Where many are uncertain: Is it still allowed to talk to people today who hold a different opinion? And why is the right opinion so rarely found among others? Politics doesn't make it easy for us either. If the government has almost 30 different special funds - are we still in debt at all? Why are we focusing on the military again, but at the same time want to abolish the Federal Youth Games? And then AI: Who will win the race between artificial intelligence and natural stupidity? It is not clear yet. But there are initial signs: Authorities are unreachable because citizens no longer have fax machines. Students struggle to decipher letters, even though teachers regularly write learning objective assessment conversation logs. What's going wrong there? Frank Lüdecke explores our chaotic life landscape as usual, up-to-date and surprising. The recipient of various cabaret awards (German Cabaret Award, German Cabaret Award, Bavarian Cabaret Award, Cabaret Awards from NRW and Lower Saxony, among others) as well as the head of the cabaret theater DIE STACHELSCHWEINE in Berlin does not hesitate to cleverly link politics, philosophy, and wit for two entertaining hours. There is also music, as always. At the end of his analysis, he has good news and bad news for you. The bad news: He himself doesn't know exactly. The good news: Despite all odds, he remains optimistic. And advises: "Keep dreaming!"

Admission: 6:15 pm