When does Open Wound take place?

The performance begins on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 8:00 PM.

Where will the play be performed?

The performance takes place on Stage 2 of the Munich Volkstheater at Tumblingerstraße 29, 80337 Munich.

How long does the performance last?

The performance lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes and is played without a break.

How much does a ticket cost?

Tickets are available from 15 euros according to the event information.

What topics does the production address?

The play deals with the racially motivated attack at the Munich Olympic Shopping Center, the perspectives of the relatives, memory culture, and right-wing terror.

Are there content warnings?

The production explicitly depicts violence, murder, the use of firearms, racism, and right-wing terror.

Open Wound: Experience Munich's moving theater against forgetfulness live

Name: Open Wound
Start: 2026-10-27T20:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-10-27T21:20:00+01:00
Location: Münchner Volkstheater, Bühne 2

Open Wound: A documentary theater evening about memory and responsibility

On Tuesday, October 27, 2026, the Munich Volkstheater opens a space for memory, mourning, and social responsibility with Open Wound. The documentary play by Tunay Önder and Christine Umpfenbach tells the story of the racially motivated attack at the Munich Olympic Shopping Center on July 22, 2016, while also looking at the ongoing lives of the victims' families.

When memory becomes stage action

The production does not rely on spectacular effects but on the accuracy of researched voices. Conversations with relatives, lawyers, politicians, and staff from security agencies form the material for a theater evening that makes social structures visible. At the center are the nine young people who were murdered in the attack: Armela, Can, Dijamant, Giuliano, Hüseyin, Roberto, Sabine, Selçuk, and Sevda.

Research theater between documentation and theatricalization

Christine Umpfenbach directs and combines documentary precision with a careful stage form. The dramaturgy moves between personal memory, political analysis, and the question of how a city deals with right-wing violence. The stage design and costumes are by Evi Bauer and Pascale Martin, while video and sound are designed by Anton Kaun, and the lighting design is the responsibility of David Jäkel. This creates a theatrical atmosphere in which language, sound, and light gently contour the space of remembrance.

An evening against forgetfulness

Open Wound reminds us that the consequences of an attack do not disappear with the end of the act. The production also highlights how the families had to fight for the attack to be recognized as a right-wing extremist act. The directorial work of Christine Umpfenbach, who was awarded the Theater Promotion Prize of the State Capital Munich in 2014 for her socio-political theater projects, anchors the evening in a documentary stage art with a clear political stance.

Close to the audience, intense, and without a break

The performance lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes and takes place without a break. Content-wise, violence, murder, firearms, racism, and right-wing terror are explicitly addressed. The stage experience is aimed at an audience that wants to engage in a concentrated, demanding, and emotionally challenging exploration of Munich's recent history.

The press praised the production as moving and poignant, while also being a careful connection between documentation and theatricalization. At the Munich Volkstheater, this becomes a memorial evening that focuses on the victims and reminds us of the responsibility of civil society.

Conclusion: Theater as a place of remembrance

Open Wound promises no comfortable theater, but a vigilant and necessary stage experience. The production makes the names, biographies, and perspectives of the victims visible and questions how memory continues to resonate in a democratic society. Anyone who experiences theater as a place of engagement and solidarity will find in this evening an intense reason to look closely and to be touched.