Kikeriki Theater - "Nosferatu" an Irony of Horror

KIKERIKI THEATER was founded by Roland Hotz in 1979 as an amateur puppet theatre in Darmstadt. The first public performance for children took place in 1980, and in 1984 the premiere of the first full-length evening programme for adults was held. In 1992, part of the group made puppet theatre their profession, and after thirteen years of touring, their own small theatre opened in Darmstadt in 1993.

The goal of KIKERIKI THEATER is to present the ancient folk art of puppet theatre and preserve it as an integral part of the diverse cultural offerings of our society. We are equally committed to bringing joy to people and making them laugh. We stand for cheerfulness, lightheartedness, and absurdity, but never for meaninglessness - for even we see no sense in that. The play of KIKERIKI THEATER emerges from the desire to listen to the people and speak plainly. We take pleasure in presenting life's small problems, the pitfalls of everyday life, and all human weaknesses - sometimes heavily, sometimes lightly digestible.

Characteristic of KIKERIKI THEATER's distinctive style is also a tenderly ironic approach to the specific manner of speech and way of life of southern Hessians. KIKERIKI THEATER is a theatre for the people, but not folk theatre in the sense of stale regionalism - rather with honest, fresh stable-yard flavour, and thus a people's theatre in the truest sense.

The performers of the KIKERIKI ensemble do not see themselves in their evening programmes as actors, not as cabaret artists, and possibly not even as puppet players. Rather, they see themselves as comedians, jesters, and fools who, in their performances, free from any educational mandate, defy the everyday with irony. Puppet theatre is a form of theatre of complete unreality, for the puppet is not a disguised actor; it does not pretend, "it is what it is": authentic and