Homecoming (2020)

As a live messenger game, Homecoming offers a change of scenery within your own four walls: During the pandemic, players enter a story about self-denial and solidarity in a crisis.

Autumn in the long year of the pandemic. A young woman returns to her hometown because she can’t afford rent in the big city any longer. A government agency sends out bulky letters to evaluate the resilience of the population amidst the crisis. And an online community forms, where people celebrate voluntary self-denial as a lifestyle alternative to the longing for more relaxed public health measures.
In Homecoming the audience stays at home together. From there they set off to discover a story that extends far beyond their own four walls—in conspicuous and remote locations on the Internet, in live performances, and in chat histories.
A computer with Internet access, a telephone, and a mailbox are required to play along.

Premiere / Venues

Premiere in October 2020 online – simultaneously at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the FFT Düsseldorf and HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste

October 2020 at the ACT Festival Sofia

May 2021 at the Heidelberger Stückemarkt

May 2021 at the auawirleben Theaterfestival Bern

A bed with a nightstand and a side table with a plant. A person sits with their eyes closed on the bedspread on the bed.
A person sits at a kitchen table in front of wallpaper with a tropical scene and looks toward a filming smartphone and a light mounted on a tripod.
A person in a lab coat with a coffee cup in hand leans against a brick wall in front of a blue door.
A person leans forward and stares into a circular spotlight on a tripod. She is obscured by a houseplant in the foreground.
A circular light, turned off, on a tripod atop a plank. In the background a table with rolls of paper and a poster on the wall with an image of a landscape.
A person sits cross-legged on a bed with a bedspread and a laptop. She is illuminated by a light on a tripod that someone is operating.
Two people are sitting at a kitchen table unpacking or packing up a package. In front of them is a person with a light on a tripod.

Credit: Barbara Lenartz


„At the same time, it’s kind of touching that someone is asking how we’re actually coping with the whole disruption of the pandemic. And above all, that the theater is asking the very fundamental question of why solidarity … should suddenly be less relevant now than it was in the spring.“

Cornelia Fiedler, nachtkritik.de

Performance: Anne Eigner, Jan Jaroszek/David Simon /// Concept: machina eX /// Text: Clara Ehrenwerth /// Direction: Yves Regenass /// Dramaturgy and Game Design: Mathias Prinz /// Technical Direction: Lasse Marburg /// Graphics, Scenography and Costumes: Barbara Lenartz /// Programming: Sebastian Arnd, Benedikt Kaffai /// Web Design and Programming: Philip Steimel /// Sound Design: Jascha Dormann, Malu Peeters /// Production Assistance: Antonia Bitter /// Translation: Layne Mosler /// Production management: Sina Kießling

Production: machina eX. Coproduction: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, FFT Düsseldorf and HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste. Funding: Berlin Senate Department of Culture and Fonds Darstellende Künste from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media fund