Metamorphosis - Second performance today, Tuesday 24.02.26 at 6 PM in the Atrium

Metamorphosis – An Unforgettable Transformation

A piece development of the S4 theater course by Ms. Heiligtag

23. February 2026. “Sometimes the biggest fight isn’t against the world, but against the version of you that destroys you … and calls it freedom!” – this line sticks. It captures what makes Metamorphosis so gripping: the struggle with oneself, with expectations, fears, and inner voices that push us, but can also destroy us.

The S4 theater course by Ms. Heiligtag takes the audience into a world between dream and reality, where identity is constantly in flux. Time and again, the abrupted opening sentence from Kafka’s The Metamorphosis echoes mantra-like through the room as a guiding motif: “When I woke up this morning from restless dreams …” blurring reality and dream, circulating thoughts, and making inner conflicts visible. The piece interweaves biographical elements of the performers with lines from Kafka’s Letter to His Father and The Metamorphosis, creating a fragmentary web of thought fragments that becomes a path of personal change.

At the heart of the play are the inner struggles of young people, torn between chaos and control, intoxication and self-discipline, the desire for freedom and the pressure to be perfect. Performance pressure, societal expectations, exaggerated beauty ideals on social media, and the question of self-worth are laid bare without mercy. Thus an unsettling, yet fascinating portrait of teenage realities emerges.

Particularly impressive are the choreographic elements that make inner chaos physically tangible. Movements, light, harsh sounds, and a pulsating heartbeat on stage let the audience feel how close fear, overwhelm, and collapse lie to one another. The piece often feels like an open therapy session, intensely, painfully, and honestly dissecting the inner self. It is painful to watch how thought loops unravel only slowly, yet that is precisely the work’s great strength. Metamorphosis tells of the painful letting go of old patterns, of baring oneself, and of the courage to meet oneself. Who am I when I have shed my old shell? What lies behind the new? Am I up to this pressure? These questions hang in the air and are deliberately left partly unanswered.

Cultural identity and belonging are also openly addressed, exposing the hypocrisy of our society in dealing with integration. Who am I in Germany if my roots lie elsewhere? Can I belong without losing myself? In this way, the play strikes a nerve with many young people who do not stand between two worlds but carry both within themselves.

The theater course transforms the Atrium into a place of permanent change, a space where nothing remains stable and every certainty is questioned. Metamorphosis is not a gentle change but a rupture, a tremor, a painful process of becoming. And a process that is not finished. This is precisely where its powerful impact lies. Those who watch are not left unmoved.

Conclusion:
An intense, brave, and deeply moving theater experience that lingers long after. Metamorphosis shows how powerful school theater can be – honest, current, and emotional. A piece that wants not only to be seen but to be felt.

Today, Tuesday, February 24, 2026, the S4 course again stages its self-developed piece “Metamorphosis” at 6:00 PM in the Atrium.

An theater review by Lisa Günther

Photos: Anke Buchholz