About the production

Start

7 p.m.

End

8:30 p.m.

Leave? Stay? Where do we go after school? What keeps us here – and what drives us away?

In this production by the youth club of Cottbus’s Piccolo Theatre, the young people themselves have their say. They talk about their hopes, doubts and dreams – loudly, quietly, honestly. It’s about family expectations, empty town centres and stations, the allure of the big city, and what remains when you leave.

In Lusatia, structural change is felt everywhere, every day. Children are growing up in an ageing society. Certainties that existed for previous generations no longer apply to them. Many young people ask themselves: should we leave or stay? Is there a future for us here? What does »home« mean when friends move away because opportunities seem greater elsewhere?

Through original texts, scenes, music and movement, in collaboration with bestselling author Ruth-Maria Thomas (»Die schönste Version«, Rowohlt 2024), who is writing for the theatre for the first time for this project, and the Lausitz Festival, a multi-voiced portrait of the region is emerging – between a sense of new beginnings and a sense of belonging, between anger and hope. To leave or to stay... or, for now, to »gehen bleiben«. A theatrical invitation to reflect further.

For people aged 14 and over.

A co-production by Piccolo Theater Cottbus and Lausitz Festival

Text Development

Ruth-Maria Thomas

Ruth-Maria Thomas, born in 1993 and raised in Cottbus, worked as a social worker in youth welfare. She studied at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Her debut novel, »Die schönste Version« (The Most Beautiful Version, 2024), was nominated for the German Book Prize, the aspekte Literature Prize, the Buddenbrookhaus Prize, and the German Business Prize, and was awarded the Ulla Hahn Prize. In 2025, the rbb podcast »Der Bruch – Frauen zwischen Ost und jetzt« (The Break – Women Between East and Now) was released, hosted by Thomas. »Die zweitgrößte Liebe«, her second novel, will be published on July 30, 2026.

Staging

Matthias Heine

Matthias Heine, born in 1979, studied social pedagogy and cultural management. Since 2004, he has worked as an actor, theatre educator and director at the Piccolo Theater Cottbus, the largest children’s and youth theatre in the state of Brandenburg. In 2024, he took over as the theatre’s artistic director.

Heine has been running the Piccolo Youth Club for many years. In this role, he has received, among other honours, the German Amateur Theatre Award three times, the Brandenburg Youth Culture Award and the Federal Theatre Award (for the Piccolo Theatre and the production »KRG.«). Heine has also been nominated and invited to the National Meeting of Youth Clubs at Theatres and the Youth Theatre Festival (Berlin Festival) for various works, most recently with the productions »stolpern« (2023) and »dazwischen« (2025).

As a film director and screenwriter, Matthias Heine brought the film »Holger, Hanna und der ganze kranke Rest« to the big screen in 2012. The film »Baden gehen« (2023, screenplay/direction) was honoured by the Federal Agency for Civic Education in 2024. In 2021, Matthias Heine and Julia Schoch jointly received one of the main prizes in the Brandenburg Dialogues literary competition, initiated by the Hans-Otto Theatre, Potsdam. Matthias Heine lives in Cottbus and is married to the actress Laura Maria Hänsel. The couple has two daughters together.

Piccolo Jugendklub

The Piccolo Youth Club, together with the Piccolo Youth Dance Company, represents the highest age group in the Piccolo Theatre’s dance and theatre education programmes. It is made up of young people who have been active in other Piccolo groups for several years, but is also open to external participants. The performers are aged between 14 and 21.

Every year, the Piccolo Youth Club stages a play that also features the theatre’s regular programme and always explores themes suggested by the young people themselves. Using the theatre’s resources, the youth club develops its own productions and adaptations of texts. A new project usually begins in August and premieres in April of the following year. The Piccolo Youth Club places great emphasis on the participants’ creative initiative and, consequently, on the emancipatory effects this brings. Scripts and staging ideas are discussed and developed collectively.