Roses Rising – The Dinner

Leila Hekmat

Four guests, an opulent dinner and a longing for rebellion. What begins as a bourgeois ritual descends into intoxication, madness and revolutionary fantasy. Leila Hekmat stages a visually stunning performance that is part comedy, part musical tableau vivant.“Pick your pussy up off that floor and make yourself a drink.”Following the great success of “Gloriette”, her first work for a theatre space, Leila Hekmat is now staging her second production at HAU. In the performance “Roses Rising – The Dinner”, the Berlin-based artist and director shows a delirious dinner party in which four self-indulgent guests confront their exhausted hopes for collective action. What begins as a bourgeois ritual unravels into spiraling delusions, narcissistic agitation, self-doubt, and a sincere longing for rebellion.With meticulously handcrafted costumes and stage designs, Roses Rising unfolds in Leila Hekmat’s distinctive style, traversing comedy, musical tableau vivant, and performance. Developed through extensive research and collected materials on 1970s protest cultures, the work emerges as a performative collage shaped through an ongoing process of collaboration with the choreographer and dancer Shade Théret and the performer and musician Roman Ole, who composes and directs the work’s original music alongside Roman Lemberg.“Roses Rising” is presented as a two-part performance in collaboration with Gropius Bau and explores the conscious and unconscious strategies through which people respond to a world in crisis. “The Dinner” follows “The Movement”, which takes place in Gropius Bau’s atrium on March 6 & 7 and foreshadows the performative uprising sparked by the decadent dinner party.

approx. 90 mins.

Artists/Collaborators: Leila Hekmat (Text, Regie, Kostüme und Bühnenbild), Roman Ole (Musikalische Leitung und Komposition), Roman Lemberg (Musikalische Leitung und Komposition), Shade Théret (Choreografie), Diamond Stingily (Performance), Jette Loona Hermanis (Performance), Roman Ole (Performance), Shade Théret (Performance), Mickey Mahar (Performance), Anne Meeussen (Licht), Hendrik Borowski (Licht), Elsa Leguévaques (Leitung Kostümschneiderei), Monika Martynow (Kostümschneiderei), YouJung Kim (Kostümschneiderei), Grace Kim (Kostümschneiderei), Niël Meyer (Kollaboration Tische und Stühle), Kenny Campbell (Haare und Make-up), Xavier Perrone (Sound), Antonia Rohwetter (Dramaturgie), Richard Gersch (Regieassistenz), Noah Lichtblau (Regieassistenz), Hendrik Borowski (Technische Leitung und Licht), Anja Weigl (Produktion), Alicja Waliczek (Hospitanz), Sara Kanarski (Hospitanz), Gerd Sulzenbacher (Übersetzung Übertitel), Panthea (Übertitel), Aenne Quiñones (Dramaturgische Beratung), Alabapia (Band), Enna Lesch (Band), Leela Faude (Band)

Sexual acts, pedophilia, drug use, war, and experiences of poverty are satirically addressed through spoken text on stage. There are moments of complete darkness. Recommended for audiences aged 16 and up.

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 16/April/2026 20:00 (2 more dates)
• Venue HAU Hebbel am Ufer - HAU1
• Address Stresemannstraße 29 A, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg
• Price from €12.00

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