When does the performance take place?

The performance begins on 09/10/2026 at 20:00 in the Weiherhofbad Karlsruhe-Durlach.

How long does la vita nuova last?

According to event information, a duration of about one hour is to be expected.

Where is the production playing?

In the Weiherhofbad Karlsruhe-Durlach, Weiherhof 13, 76227 Karlsruhe.

Is the event accessible?

The venue is reportedly accessible without stairs. However, a barrier-free restroom is not available in the building complex.

How much is the admission?

According to Rausgegangen, ticket prices start at €16.50.

Are there any visitor guidelines?

Photography and video recordings are not allowed during the performance. Admission occurs shortly before the start.

Surreal Dance in the Swimming Pool: la vita nuova Transforms Karlsruhe into a Stage Wonder

Name: la vita nuova
Start: 2026-09-10T22:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-10T23:00:00+02:00
Location: Weiherhofbad Karlsruhe-Durlach

A public swimming pool becomes a stage for the surreal

With la vita nuova, the ensemble ben rentz transforms the Weiherhofbad Karlsruhe-Durlach into a place where body, music, and space contradict each other while simultaneously reordering themselves. The performance starts where everyday life feels strictest: in the public swimming pool. A swimming hall becomes a theatrical space, habit turns into a stage experience, and function becomes a poetic challenge.

Surrealism as artistic resistance

The production connects to the surrealism of the 1920s, which reacted to war, social upheaval, and the rising fascism. Ben Rentz and his team do not see the surreal as an escape but as an empowering method. Thus, a staging emerges that does not smooth reality but questions it: What remains of the human when emotions, instincts, and physicality are brought back to the center?

The space itself becomes a player

The Weiherhofbad is not a backdrop here but a dramatic engine. Tiles, pool edges, stands, and passages become part of the choreography. Dancers, musicians, and materials of wood and metal intertwine into a lively scene, in which the audience does not experience the theatrical atmosphere frontally but is amidst the action. It is precisely this spatial closeness that makes the stage experience so intense.

Queer desire, body politics, and movement

The performance opens the view to queer desire and to the body as a place of freedom. In this perspective, the swimming pool becomes a democratic and at the same time fragile space where societal rules become visible. The dramaturgy relies on movement, friction, and transformation. From this grows a performance that thinks sensually, politically, and formally at the same time.

Professionally accurate, aesthetically open

Direction, choreography, and design interlock without overshadowing the place. The ensemble works with a clear visual language that responds to sightlines, acoustics, and lighting moods. This is where the authority of this free production lies: It uses the means of dance and theater art to radically reread a familiar urban space. Karlsruhe does not experience a conventional play here but a performative statement with strong contemporary observation.

Audience reaction and effect

Those who visit this production do not experience comfortable evening entertainment but a concentrated, body-close theater event. The audience's reaction is likely to fluctuate between astonishment, irritation, and fascination because la vita nuova literally recodes everyday life. This is precisely what makes the appeal of this performance: it shows how a public swimming pool can become a place of new perception.

Conclusion: la vita nuova promises an extraordinary theater and dance event between surrealism, body art, and spatial transformation. Anyone who wants to experience Karlsruhe as a lively site of the free scene should see this production live.