Unsere Grube

Based on the same-named picture book Our Pit by Emma AdBåge, this stage adaptation explores just how many rules a game needs. In a lively and entertaining performance, the three performers of Unsere Grube by pulk fiktion use drama, movement and live music to tell the story of a pit as a playground together with their audience: Once on stage, we are sent on an adventurous mission or are allowed to play ourselves amongst towers of inflated black tyres and mountains of popcorn. In exploring how children make their own decisions, questions arise not only about a sense of safety, the willingness to obey and childlike autonomy – they are also put to the test directly. And in the most delightful way.
The production impresses with its consistently participatory structure, the performers’ enthusiasm for acting and music, and a stage design that invites you to jump right in. The fact that pulk fiktion developed the ideas for this piece together with a group of children, the JUNGERpulk, is evident in the authentic engagement with the world of children’s play. A loving and cleverly executed performance that is genuinely fun and, most importantly, takes its audience as seriously as one rarely experiences.

Text: Valerie Wehrens for FAVORITEN Festival

pulk fiktion is a performance group founded in 2007 and based in Cologne, dedicated to theatre for children and young people. The group’s diverse and interdisciplinary approach stems from its unwavering commitment to tailoring the aesthetic form to each specific theme. The productions, mostly new works, have been invited to various national and international festivals and have won numerous awards. In 2025, pulk fiktion became the first children’s and youth theatre group to receive the Tabori Prize.

Author: based on the picture book of the same name by Emma AdBåge
Direction: Hannah Biedermann
Performance: Marouf Alhassan, Simon Brinkmann, Julia Hofstaedter
Music: Simon Brinkmann
Dramaturgy: Lisa Zehetner
Set design: Ria Papadopoulou
Education programme: Hannah Dijksma
JUNGERpulk: Sima Razmjo Airamloze, Laureano Jäkel Botano, Elsa Müller Dacristan, Fynn Gregorius, Mila May, Ecenaz Ökmen, Mejrem Sadrijaj
Technical support: Peter Behle, Mirko Krejci, Gerd Weidig
NRW scholarship holder: Martha Kleinhempel
Production management: Lise Wolle
Financial management: transmission

Performance Rights: First published by Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2018, and in German (translated by Friederike Buchinger) by Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim, in 2021.