A Year without Summer

It is 2025. We live in a year without summer: In a jump-scare reality that feels like an apocalyptic vision of our world, thrown into darkness and stripped of certainty. Survival becomes ritual, and despair dances hand in hand with ecstasy.

In 1816, the original „year without summer“, Mount Tambora erupts in Indonesia, ashes fill the sky, the sun disappears, crops fail, and the world hungers. That same year, 18-year-old Mary stays by Lake Geneva with other poets and storm and darkness inspire them to tell ghost stories. Mary imagines Dr. Frankenstein, a genius of science, who forces nature to bend to his will and ends up in destruction with his monster assembled from corpses‘ parts.

Florentina Holzinger and cast explore the stories we tell about our bodies, health, identities, decay and our environment: The 21st century pursuit of longevity, medical promises of rejuvenation to the perils of unchecked technological growth in a world shaped by AI, robotics, and bioengineering. A Year without Summer appropriates this attempt to improve nature to the point of perversion and plays off the promise of eternal life against the certainty of death.

But what happens when the creation becomes the monster? When creation becomes (like) us?

Note

We recommend a minimum age of 18 to attend the performance.

Trigger warning

Please note: The show A Year without Summer contains

• blood and bodily fluids
• self-injurious acts
• explicit depictions of sexual acts
• strobe lights

Robotics: Boiling Head, Zoe Bassi with a thanks to the Roboverse Community
Electrodes: Karsten Schuhl
Assistant Director: Xavier Perez, Max Pross
Stage Assistance: Christiane Hilmer, Simeon Melchior
Costume Assistance: Jasmin Knitter
Assistant Dramaturge: Lili Hering
Choreography Assistance: Sophie Duncan
Technical Direction: Emma Juliard, Stephan Werner, Dario Brinkmann
Stage and Rigging: Dörte Wilforth
Stage: Jan Krüger, Uwe Sinkemat
Stunt Coordinator: Ronny Hornig – Gravity Stunts
Coaching: Leon Le Nestour, Elisa Siegmund
Intimacy Coaching: Jasko Fide
Intimacy Coordination (Casting): Dani Brown and Frida Giulia Franceschini
Light: Anne Meeussen, Fabian Bleisch
Sound Engineering: Olivia Oyama
Sound Assistance: Fjóla Gautadóttir
Stage Assistance: Christiane Hilmer, with Angela Ribera, Paulina Jarosinska
Production neon lobster: Sarah Parolin, Katharina Wallisch
PR and Communication neon lobster: Giulia Messia
Tour Management neon lobster: Sarah Parolin
Management and International Distribution neon lobster: Katharina Wallisch & Giulia Messia

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

Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien. With the support of Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport Österreich.
Thank you to: Alicia Beier, Sina Lorber, Ada’s Deli, Toxo