Project Overview

Zurück in die Zukunft – Der Fall der vier Ringe (Back to the Future – The Case of the Four Rings) is an innovative interactive game theater production that explores the unfinished history of the Trabant P603. The production examines the pivotal moment when Günter Mittag prevented the construction of what could have been the "Volkswagen" - a promising vehicle with four-stroke engine and hatchback design. The prototype already existed, but Mittag's decision led to the creation of the "Golf" in West Germany instead.

Media

Concept & Approach

The production invites audiences to play through the exhibition rooms of the August Horch Museum, exploring what would have happened if Horch, Audi, DKW and Wanderer had not merged in 1932, and if the Trabant P603 had actually been built. The audience gets to help determine what would have happened!

Participants wander in groups through four museum rooms as well as a time travel laboratory, meeting live historical figures and collecting red points with correct answers. The experience begins with a tutorial where each audience member is prepared for meeting a historical person and learns playfully how to behave in the respective time zones to manipulate both known and unknown decision-makers of history.

In the subsequent parcours, the audience has eight minutes per time period to create the prerequisites for building the P603, rewriting automotive history in an economic game, and asking questions of history. However, they also confront the paradoxical problems of time travel - that they themselves can trigger developments that have positive or negative effects on history.

The production makes a playful time journey to four exciting nodal points of Saxon automotive history, with the goal of resurrecting a historical car through the right decisions.

Project Details

• Year: 2024
• Theatre: Theater Plauen-Zwickau / August Horch Museum
• Genre: Interactive Game Theater / Site-Specific Performance
• Location: August Horch Museum, Zwickau
• Premiere: September 7, 2024
• Duration: Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes per group of eight
• Age Recommendation: 15+ (9th grade and up)
• Format: Staggered group entry every 8 minutes
• Cooperation: Theater Plauen-Zwickau with BORGtheater Berlin

Credits

Creative Team:

• Regie / Game Design: Rolf Kasteleiner
• Programmierung: Markus Schubert
• Game Design Berater: Philipp Bunkus
• Ausstattung: Annabel von Berlichingen
• Dramaturgie: Luise Curtius
• Regieassistenz: Elisa Ender
• Inspizienz / Soufflage: Mariia Chechel

Cast:

• Bernd / Dr. Bruhn: Hanif Idris
• Melanie / Else Moll: Sarah Bonitz
• Gerhard / Fritz Selbmann: Philipp Andriotis
• Jürgen / Günter Mittag: Daniel Koch

NPCs: Julia Kunz, Sylvia Lehnigk, Sabrina Liedemann, Lea Männel, Lena Prokop, Lena Schicketanz; Frank Etzold, Abdulsamad Mahmood, Daniel Schiffer

Production:

• Theatre: Theater Plauen-Zwickau
• Museum: August Horch Museum
• Fotocredit: André Leischner
• Year: 2024