New theater in the vaulted cellar: emotions and adventure await you!

New theater in the vaulted cellar: emotions and adventure await you!

Things will be musically and theatrically exciting in Besigheim's vaulted cellar this fall. Today, October 30, 2025, the revival of the play “The Whole Terribly Beautiful Life” by Rüdiger Erk will take place. This performance is the first of three planned performances as part of a new program that will take us through 2026. The premiere in Bönnigheim has already caused anticipation to grow, and the audience is eagerly awaiting what the artists around singer Monika Maria Schmitz and musician Mike Janipka will conjure up on stage. The interpretation of love songs from past centuries paired with acting based on texts by Roland Barthes promises to be a very special experience.

But that's just the beginning! On November 6th there will be a performance of the piece “Seemannsgarn”, a commissioned work for the Fellbach Municipal Museum and the first performance outside of Fellbach. During rehearsals in the vaulted cellar, Tiffany Estrada, Rüdiger Erk and Frank Eisele take the audience on a Klabautermann fairy tale and give us sea shanties, legends and adventure novels. Particularly exciting: the highlight of the evening will be the “Cape Song” by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, which provides an emotional setting as a farewell song for 2,000 soldiers.

A life for music and words

Schubart, born on March 24, 1739 in Obersontheim, is a formative figure in German literature and music. Known for his socially critical writings that denounced the aristocratic rule in the Duchy of Württemberg, he was not only a poet, but also an organist, composer and journalist. After his youth as a private tutor in Geislingen and his time as music director in Ludwigsburg, Schubart was expelled from the country in 1773 because of his critical attitude towards the ruling class society. His work, particularly the “Kap Song,” has left a lasting impression to this day. Franz Schubert also found inspiration in Schubart's poems and set some to music - clear evidence of the timeless relevance of his texts.

The history of the theater, in which Schubart's works are also performed, is also shaped by profound social trends. In the Baroque era, when the principle “panem et circenses” applied, German-language theater flourished, and plays by popular authors such as Goethe and Schiller found their place on the country's stages. Romanticism, the mainstream of the literary movement, placed greater emphasis on the connection between humans and nature, represented by authors such as Novalis and the Schlegel brothers. The theater landscape experienced a change due to industrialization, which also brought socially critical issues to the fore, which also made Gerhart Hauptmann's important work “The Webers” the subject of discussion.

A look into the future

The third piece in the fall series, “Blue Hour,” will premiere on November 27th. This new work by Rüdiger Erk deals with the life of Ian Curtis, the iconic singer of Joy Division, and the poet Novalis. With lively performances by Anna Le Fur and Rüdiger Erk, supported by DJ Moers, the audience is taken into the emotional depths of two extraordinary artists. The promise of exciting evenings shines through the vaulted cellar and attracts theater enthusiasts from near and far.

In this new program series in the vaulted cellar it becomes clear once again: theater is not just entertainment, but also a place for reflection and social change. With Schubart's work as part of these surprising evenings, the cultural heritage comes to life and invites reflection.