The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
Wait To Be Seated is a theatrical collaboration by two feminist collectives from Bangalore and Berlin. In the piece we explore hospitality, using diplomatic protocol as a template – following it diligently as well as purposely infringing some of its rules. In our exchange, the groups appear as hosts and guests for each other, who turn out to be challenges as well as promises and burdens.
“Atithi Devobhava” which means “The Guest is Equal to God” is an often heard phrase in India. In Karnataka Kuvempu famously coined, “Teredide Mane O Ba Athithi”, meaning “The door is open, dear guest, please enter”. There is no equally inviting saying in German that comes to mind. The performance of hosting and guesting is a serious affair especially when one considers diplomatic and transnational contexts. The host-guest cultural code is like a tight net in which both parties may get tangled. There are too many rules, they are too contradicting and they change with person, geography, time and context. And still: a good host will master all of them! This work looks curiously at the rules of hospitality and asks: Who is protected by them and what from? What is left behind when formalities are brushed off? What happens when gender, race and colonialism take a seat at the dinner table? What is it that we can ask each other for – and how can we ever say no?
In Wait To Be Seated, we devise an exercise course of hospitality in a nowhere-anywhere setting – a dinner table, a red carpet, a dance floor. We start off as two groups on opposite sides, adamantly looking for ways to meet in the middle to open up a new horizon.
The premiere took place in Bangalore in November 2025, followed by a German premiere in Berlin in spring 2026 and a tour of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Trailer
Credits
Idea and concept: She She Pop and Sandbox Collective. By and with: Sebastian Bark, Johanna Freiburg, Raabiya Jayaram, Lisa Lucassen, Mieke Matzke, Ilia Papatheodorou, Shiva Pathak, Nimi Ravindran, Berit Stumpf.
Artistic Advice: Natasha Borenko, Rodrigo Zorzanelli, Artistic Advice India: Sachin Gurjale, Vinod Ravindran, Joshua Muyiwa, Stage: Philine Rinnert, Costumes: Lea Søvsø, Costumes Assistance: Rita Rozhkova, Video Concept: Benjamin Krieg, Light Design and Technical Director: Claes Schwennen, Technical Support: Marius Bratoveanu, Light, Video & Technical Management German Tour: Marius Bratovean, Manuel Louis Horstmann, Michael Lentner, Claes Schwennen, Light, Video & Technical Management India Tour: Niranjan Gokhale, Technical and Production Assistant India: Anand Samudre, Dramaturgical Advice: Foad Esfahani, Intern: Fanny Kempter, German Live Translation: PANTHEA, Documentation India: Richa Bhavanam and Anushka Meenakshi, Social Media and Hospitality India: Leya Mammen, Coaching: Anisha Imhasly, Yumin Li, Coaching Music: Max Knoth, PR & Communication: ehrliche arbeit – freelance office for culture, PR & Communication India: Sridevi Rao, Communication: Tina Ebert, Production: Tina Ebert, Aminata Oelßner, Medha Nidhi S, Elke Weber, Company Management Sandbox Collective: Raabiya Jayaram, Shiva Pathak, Nimi Ravindran, Medha Nidhi S, Company Management She She Pop: Aminata Oelßner, Elke Weber.
A production by She She Pop and Sandbox Collective in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, FFT Düsseldorf, HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste, Kaserne Basel & SPRING Festival Utrecht.
Supported by: Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research (Pondicherry) and Theaterhaus Berlin.
This production was supported by the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore as part of the project Space for Freedom and Feminism.
Press
Frankfurter Rundschau, Marcus Hladek, 23. March 2026
"When two sides of their horizons (knowledge, prejudices, realms of experience, culture) coalesce, they expand their perspective without giving up their own, an endless process full of unexpected self-awareness (…) the coalescing of horizons (“Sometimes we feel like circus monkeys”) can be embarrassing, but using the meta level, it came across as witty and insightful.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine, Isolde Sellin, 21. March 2026
“Roles are recreated in this performance: She She Pop as hosts and Sandbox Collective as guests, searching for a space where they can both be together at the same time. For a space where hierarchy and power don’t disappear, but are made visible and negotiable. In “The Laws of Hospitality”, the philosopher Jacques Derrida describes inviting a guest as a “renewed affirmation of sovereignty and selfhood in the experience of being at home.” This multi-voiced, contradictory and loud show demonstrates that this sovereignty doesn’t have to be a law.”
Rheinische Post, Claudia Hötzendorfer, 15. March 2026
"Diplomatic protocols for state visits served as the basis for this equally entertaining and profound performance. (…) There are scenes that make the audience laugh, but also scenes that make you think. They deal with their own experiences, prejudices and a few pitfalls you may have stumbled into unwittingly yourself before.”
Nachtkritik, Iven Yorick Fenker, 7. March 2026
“The whole show is structured around the different steps of a social gathering (…). Anyone who has ever felt a little embarrassed (…) or simply anyone who has ever wanted to just sit there relaxed watching others struggle in social situations, will really enjoy this show (…). They don’t arrive at a solution. But the way there is far more interesting than the solution itself, and that’s well worth watching.”
Taz, Katrin Bettina Müller, 7. March 2026
“The production is colourful and fun. The stage design is filled with the glitz of Bollywood, (…) playing with codes of politeness and hospitality, with dress codes and the rules of diplomatically navigating conflict zones. But it also plays heavily on what we think we know, on our ideas about another country, which sound slightly off the moment we utter them.”
Berliner Zeitung, Doris Meierhenrich, 7. March 2026
"...one is almost moved at how gently and seriously that virtue, which these days in public life is almost only ever seen as a bad joke or a calculated move for political power, is weighed up, explained and put to the test here. (…) In that moment, everyone will be reminded of the grotesque scenes of welcome at the White House or the Kremlin (…) the sophistic superficiality of things is not only celebrated here, but through the skillful use of images and questions, it is made transparent and at the same time dissected.”
Deutschlandradio / Fazit, André Mumot, 6. March 2026
“It was like a kind of game about how we interact with each other, how we invent rituals to overcome our position as strangers just a little and find a bit of common ground. And in a very relaxed and very nice way, it really worked on that particular evening.”
, Chintan Girish Modi, 5. December 2025
"The performance, described as "a theatrical exploration of hospitility", was funny, wild, bizarre, disorienting, intimate, shocking, philosophical, disturbing and profound. This excess of adjectives is deliberate because excess came across as one of the major themes of the show, and was reflected in costumes, dialogue and emotions. (...) (I'm glad that the exploration of hospitality was not watered down into platitudes and punchlines.) Yet the performers managed to make the audience think about what it means to be hospitable in times of hospitility, how we can honour self and others, and the magic the unfolds when we encounter differences through the vantage point of friendship rather then fear. Please watch it when it comes to your city."
