On a chilly June evening, a predominantly female and queer crowd gathers at Berlin's Volksbühne theatre to experience 'A Year Without Summer', the latest play by Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger. Known for her trademark body horror, Holzinger's productions feature naked performers who dance, bleed, defecate, and swallow swords on stage. The anticipation of visceral shock draws the audience, raising the question: how much can we take?
Holzinger, described by the Guardian as 'Europe's hottest director', has gained international fame for her provocative works. Last year, her opera 'Sancta' in Stuttgart featured rollerskating naked nuns having lesbian sex, causing 18 audience members to require treatment for severe nausea. Protests by Christian fundamentalists have only added to the hype, with all Berlin performances of 'A Year Without Summer' selling out within minutes.
The play is set in 1816, the year after a volcanic eruption in Indonesia caused global climate change, inspiring Mary Shelley to write 'Frankenstein'. Holzinger uses this apocalyptic backdrop to explore grotesque interventions in the body, including butchering doctors, a fake birth from her own cut-open thigh, and a facelift performed on a dancer hung by meat hooks. Despite the shocking content, the staging is beautifully composed, resembling Renaissance paintings.
Holzinger's new minimalism—featuring only a glass box, two trampolines, an inflatable torso, and haze—sharpens the focus on narrative. The piece blends personal hospital stories with musical performances about racist medical science and eugenics, questioning immortality as a goal of future medicine. Co-producers include Factory International in Manchester and Rising Melbourne, where the show will later be presented.
