The Red House (working title)

The theatre director and visual artist Ersan Mondtag has developed a play for Gorki Theater about and with women who came to Berlin in the 1960s and 1970s as trained professionals. The piece is based on the Kreuzberg residential facility “Wonaym”, which housed numerous women “guest workers”. The Telefunken AG leased an entire floor there – as well as at other locations – as lodgings for these well-trained women from Turkey. These recruits had little in common with the widely-held image of low-educated, poverty-driven immigrant workers. In this play, Mondtag creates visuals reminiscent of a utopian-melancholic senior citizen’s home. In this context, he asks what stories remain in our collective memory, and which stories are blocked out. Contemporary witnesses, many of whom are now over 70 years old, will join members of the Maxim Gorki Theatre ensemble on stage who play their alter egos. Members of the “Golden Gorkis”, a theatre club of Germany’s oldest youth , are also involved in the production.

General theatre director: Shermin Langhoff
Stage direction and set design: Ersan Mondtag
Co-author: Till Briegleb
Costume design: Josa Marx

Exhibition opening & premiere: 8 November 2025;
Additional performances: Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin: autumn 2025