Ersatzverwandte

A co-production with HochX Theater

What is family? The framed picture in the hallway? The phone number you have known by heart since childhood? When the loss of a person hurts – is that family? Does Grandma now become the neighbor next door again? Can we be a family even if there is no piece of paper in the world that can prove it? Four characters search for answers to questions they have never had to ask themselves before.

Ersatzverwandte is a collaboratively developed performance combining theatre, music, and dance, in which second-generation Vietnamese Germans explore these questions together with their so-called “surrogate relatives.” It tells stories that shed light on an important aspect of Vietnamese-German realities: among Vietnamese people in Germany – whether boat refugees or contract workers – and German families, family-like relationships have developed not through blood ties, but through the mutual commitment to being family for one another.

Some surrogate family relationships are temporary, others last a lifetime. They are a phenomenon that continues to be lived across generations and communities to this day. The performance therefore not only explores interpersonal relationships within families, but also raises broader questions about the identity and sense of belonging of families in Germany, beyond origin and generations.

World premiere: January 29, 2027