A naked female dwarf Nazi, a lesbian orgy and explicit sex acts: Director whose last show left audience members needing medical attention shocks Germany with new play

Daily Mail​

23-05-2025

The creator of a divisive body horror opera that left audience members needing medical attention has brought out a new production featuring sex acts, blood and an actress with dwarfism playing a naked Nazi doctor.
Choreographer Florentina Holzinger, 39, is famous across the German-speaking world for her radical works, which usually feature nudity, dangerous stunts, unsimulated sex and physical violence.
She staged Sancta in October last year, describing the show as a 'feminist mass' and angering Christians with its provocative depictions of Jesus and the Pope and naked nuns roller-skating.
Now the controversial choreographer has produced her new play, 'A Year Without Summer', which once again, is not for the faint hearted.
'In my new show, I portray monsters from medical history,' Holzinger explained to German news outlet RBB. 'Who are the people who exercise control over the female body? What is happening in the service of scientific and medical progress?'
The play tackles issues including cosmetic surgery, anti-ageing and living conditions in nursing homes, and features an all-female cast, many of whom are aged between 65 and 90.
It opens with a dance which turns into an orgy between the women, with a giant female torso inflated and performers tumbling out of its vagina in a wild display, according to BILD.
Actress Saioa Alvarez - who in Sancta portrayed the Pope on a spinning robotic arm - is said to outrageously portray a naked Josef Mengele, the Nazi regime's 'Angel of Death' who conducted depraved experiments on his victims.
A trigger warning for audiences cautions that the play includes explicit sexual acts, blood and bodily fluids, and self-harm.
At one point, a dancer is seen having stitches removed with tweezers from a fresh wound on her leg, out of which a miniature baby figurine is pulled out - a metaphor for 'the birth of a musical'.
As well as singing and dancing, performers are said to bathe in slime inside a glass box, interact with robot dogs and have their skin pierced.
The play ends with a woman receiving what is described in huge letters projected on the stage as 'the ultimate facelift'.
Fish hooks are said to be driven through her eyebrows and cheeks, distorting her facial features. The performance was reportedly met with applause from the Berlin audience.
The show is meant to be set in 1816 - the year that became known as the Year Without a Summer due to unusually low temperatures in the northern hemisphere following the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia.
It was also the year that Mary Shelley wrote the first draft of Frankenstein while holidaying on the banks of Lake Geneva - with the creation of the monster a theme of the play.
'We found it interesting to explore the year 1816 because it shows how environmental events have a profound influence on art and literature,' Holzinger said. 'Especially now, we found it interesting to also address the fear of nature.'
The play's description states that Holzinger's 'spectacular and physically intense pieces, she incorporates references from the history of performance and dance and relates them to other disciplines such as kickboxing, artistry, striptease and circus.
'Her works consciously play with the shifting boundaries between high and pop culture and are always feminist manifestos.
'She critically examines the representation of femininity and reflects on body discipline and gender images in dance.'
Her previous show Sancta was met with protests when it was staged in Stuttgart, with security personnel needed to guard the performances.
A total of 18 audience members at two shows in the city required treatment for nausea and shock, according to German media.
Holzinger subsequently suggested that those attending should have known what they were getting themselves in for, telling objectors: 'If you don't want to see it, don't come.
'The performance expressly refers to explicit content,' she went on, seemingly referring to the many trigger warnings on the show's website.
She added defiantly: 'Anyone who can't stand depictions of violence shouldn't go to a show that draws inspiration from the Catholic Church.'
The show was met with outcry from Church figures in Austria when it was performed at the Vienna Festival last June.
Archbishop of Salzburg Franz Lackner said the work went beyond the boundaries of free artistic expression by 'seriously offending believers' religious feelings and convictions.'
But as well as sparking outrage, it also received glowing reviews, with one critic writing: 'A scandal? No, joy. Overwhelming joy.
'Holzinger is directing a musical theatre [production] for the first time, and the result is so clever, so funny, so incredibly well put together that you are truly astonished.'
A Year Without Summer has also had a positive reception from some, with critics from Germany daily paper Spiegel calling the performance 'fantastic, touching array of images.'
A critic from Berliner Morgenpost wrote that Holzinger 'once again demonstrates why she is one of the superstars of the arts.'
The upcoming performances of A Year Without Summer are all but sold out, with only a handful of tickets remaining and new dates expected to be announced.