FAUL&HÄSSLICH
GERD, I’ll stay with you
Friday 2 October 2026, 7.30 pm – Premiere
Saturday 3 October 2026, 7.30 pm
Sunday 4 October 2026, 7.30 pm (Followed by a discussion with Biba Oskar Nass)
Picking up where you left off. Filling in the blanks. Fragmenting the body. Piecing your name together from letters. Writing me out of stories and reclaiming the gaps. Drawing closer to a person who is no longer here.
Gerd, what do you think of my name?
He doesn’t reply.
Of course he doesn’t reply.
GERD is a documentary theatre performance about Gerd Katter, a transmasculine person who lived in Berlin at the start of the 20th century and was one of the first to officially apply for a change of civil status.
Drawing on their essay *Blau*, Biba Oskar Nass has developed a text that combines documentary and fictional elements. The production brings this text together with archive material, autobiographical audio recordings by Gerd Katter and voices from the queer community.
At its heart are bodies as sites of memory and self-determination. The performance explores what queer history can preserve – and what is lost when names, biographies and spaces are erased. Where are the historical points of reference in a present in which trans and queer people are once again fighting for their rights?
Following the 2023 performance *anastasius – don’t call me by my deadname*, the queer-feminist collective FAUL&HÄSSLICH. Once again, it focuses on the historical realities of transmasculine lives and their visibility, marking the third collaboration between Mare Kraus and Ria Unverzagt.
Funded by the NRW State Office for the Independent Performing Arts and the City of Cologne.
Text: Biba Oskar Nass
Stage adaptation: Mare Kraus, Ria Unverzagt
Production / Concept: Mare Kraus, Ria Unverzagt
Direction: Mare Kraus, Ria Unverzagt, Malin Assmus
Performers: Mare Kraus, Malin Assmus
Set / Costumes: Annika Garling
Sound / Lighting design: Vito Oliveira Azevedo
Graphic design: Peter Kraus
Photography: Tizian Hollweck
CONTENT NOTE / Content of the performance:
Transphobia, dysphoria, self-harm, (family) trauma, blood, death. Please assess for yourself whether you wish to and/or are able to expose yourself to this content.
