A Year without Summer

by Florentina Holzinger

A production by Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Berlin), Florentina Holzinger/Spirit and neon lobster in co-production with Tanzquartier Wien, International Summer Festival Kampnagel, Dansenhus Stockholm, DE SINGEL, Maska Ljubljana, asphalt Festival, Rising Melbourne, Factory International Manchester, Divine Comedy International Theater Festival / Łaźnia Nowa Theater (Kraków) and Marvaða Iceland

World premiere: 21.5.2025 (Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz)

Singing women in white coats gather around a hospital bed, behind them the huge torso of a naked woman with her legs spread

A Year without Summer © Florentina Holzinger/Spirit

In A Year without Summer Florentina Holzinger and the ensemble combine poetry, humour and excess to tell of the quest for immortality and utopia in the midst of the Apocalypse.

This production cannot be programmed during the Theatertreffen’s festival period (1 – 17 May) for scheduling reasons. It will, however, be presented as a “TT-Nachspiel” at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in October 2026. An allocation of tickets will be available when tickets for Theatertreffen go on sale on 18 April. Further tickets will become available as part of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz’s regular sales release for October.

There are indications of sensitive and/or health-relevant content.

Unremitting darkness, radical upheaval, a world shrouded in fog – is it 2025 or 1816, the “year without summer” that followed the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora? Back then a group of writers including the young Mary Shelley gathered by Lake Geneva during the cold and stormy summer months and told each other horror stories. Mary invented the scientist Dr. Frankenstein, who endeavours to create artificial life. This is where Florentina Holzinger and the ensemble start their tale of health, identity and disintegration. Huge antitheses meet in ravishing images: youth and age, pain and tenderness, humans and machines, eternal life and certain death. Known for her spectacular performances combining elements of dance, acrobatics, horror and music, Holzinger launches into her first ever musical in A Year without Summer, presenting scenes full of robust humour, fragile corporeality and timeless beauty.

Jury Statement

“What does one do in a ‘year without summer’, when the world is darkened by volcanic eruptions and plunging temperatures? When this happened in 1816, the 18-year-old writer Mary Shelley thought up the monster Frankenstein. Florentina Holzinger conflates all these events and together with her performers, who this time include a crew of actors some of whom are in their Eighties, embarks on a wild and exceptionally lucid ride through homo sapiens’ history of optimisation. In spectacular and highly complex scenes she presents the planet’s status quo alongside the story of how the human body deteriorates and – while the robot dogs are already preparing to attack – questions the curse and promise of eternal life. Defying the darkness, all this takes place in the form of a musical that is overflowing with ideas and visuals, and which ends in the most literal fake faecal orgy in theatre history. How an absolutely kitsch-free utopia emerges here within the most unsparing truth imaginable is something that has never been seen like this in the theatre before.”
– Christine Wahl for the Theatertreffen-jury

Tothe video statement (in German)

Artistic Team

Florentina Holzinger – Direction, Choreography, Performance
Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Stefan Schneider – Musical Direction
Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Josephinex Ashley Hansis, Noah Reis Ramma, Stefan Schneider – Composition
Sofia Borges, Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Bláthin Eckhardt, Paige A. Flash, MING, otay:onii, Stefan Schneider – Live Music
Philipp Hülsenbeck – Additional Music Production, Mixing, Arrangements
Stefan Schneider, Olivia Oyama – Sound Design
Fernando Belfiore, Sara Ostertag, Felix Ritter, Michele Rizzo – Dramaturgy
Leonie Hahn – Dramaturgy Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

By and with

Saioa Alvarez Ruiz, Liane Jil Apel, Andrea Baker, Bear Boy, Sofia Borges, Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Renée Copraij, Beatrice Cordua, Sophie Duncan, Luz de Luna Duran, Bláthin Eckhardt, Renée Eigendorff, Fibi Eyewalker, Paige A. Flash, Florentina Holzinger, Sahel van K, Chris Kringel, Annina Machaz, Achan Malonda, Ingeborg Middendorf, MING, Xana Novais, Netti Nüganen, otay:onii, Constanza Pérez de Lara Bonatti, Sue Shay, Gitti Ulm, Bärbel Warneke, Lucy Wilke

Complete cast of A Year without Summer

A production by Florentina Holzinger/Spirit, neon lobster, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

in co-production with Tanzquartier Wien, Kampnagel International Summer Festival, Dansenhus Stockholm, DE SINGEL, Maska Ljubljana, asphalt Festival, Rising Melbourne, Factory International Manchester, Divine Comedy International Theater Festival / Łaźnia Nowa Theater Kraków, Marvaða Iceland

Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF) and the City of Vienna Department of Cultural Affairs. With the support of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Media and Sport of the Republic of Austria.

Thanks to Ada’s Deli, Alicia Beier, Galen Tipcon, Hector Alberto Tosta de la Rosa, Karsten Schuhl, Sina Lorber, Toxo