Gendergaga
The great identity politics propaganda show
Performance Social/Urban Movements Theatre & Performance
Gender Gaga is a derisive right-wing term as well as the title of a 2020 publication by Birgit Kelle, arriving in the guise of self-help literature. The book’s blurb read: “Rarely did any ideology with a claim to world improvement carry such a high entertainment factor. And that is why gender mainstreaming deserves to be seen as what it is: a great satire. Curtains away!”
The RuhrgebietsSpatzen take the copywriters at their word, conquering the term in a glamourous entertainment revue: GenderGaGa. They celebrate the subversive potential in German schlager. For was it not Claire Waldoff who sang “Raus mit den Männern ausm Reichstag” (“Get the men out of the Reichstag”) back in 1926, slamming the doors wide open for the “amazons”? From Waldoff to Georgia Meloni, with Zarah Leander and Alice Weidel, from Marine Le Pen back to Marlene Dietrich – dazzling show hosts Pani Kostka and Mercedes Tuccini take their audience into a world between politics, propaganda, and nightlife.
cast
Artistic direction, performance: Julia Nitschke (Pani Kostka),
Jonas Leifert (Mercedes Tuccini)
Public relations, project assistance and visual content: Monse Guiot Casares
Costumes, stage design: Theresa Mielich, Laser Kreis
Burlesque training: Burlesque Cologne
Graphics: Desiree Kabis
RuhrgebietsSpatzen are Pani Kostka and Mercedes Tuccini. The glamourous entertainment duo from the Ruhr Area. Their hearts beat schlager!
Mercedes Tuccini, as Jonas Leifert, initiates artistic projects that pick up current social topics historically, from the perspective of the Ruhr Area. Apart from the Ruhr Area’s entertainment culture from around 1900, he is also at this time especially interested in the environmental and health movements of the 1970s.
Pani Kostka, otherwise known as Julia Nitschke, works as a performance artist, curator, and author, with a focus on political remembrance in queer-feminist and familiar post-Eastern contexts. With Grupa Mauczka, she works on artistic projects on Poland’s migration history and scrutinises Germany’s remembrance politics with absurd performances.
credits
west off 2025 – Theaternetzwerk Rheinland receives support from the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Cultural Departments of the Cities of Bonn, Düsseldorf, and Cologne.
Supported by the Diversitätsfonds NRW, Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. A RuhrgebietsSpatzen production in coproduction with Theater im Depot and Ringlokschuppen Ruhr.