Like A Prayer - A New Service
Maxim Gorki Theater Herbstsalon 2025
A weekly assembly that explores forms of prayer, moving towards a new ritual. Over the course of seven Fridays, each evening focuses on one topic, we open prayer-club with the beauty and wisdom of ancient worship traditions.
In an open-source public process, we practice liturgies as scores for performative actions – questioning them, reformulating them, and fusing them together.
The public is invited to congregate in a contemporary sacred space that is free, inclusive, doubtful, curious, and loving – a space without marginalization, suppression, or violence, where we search for a new belonging and practice being together. In this new service, participants are encouraged to bring their own rituals that inform the process, while guest experts contribute insights, and together we ask: What makes rituals relevant today? Which should we carry into the future? And which need to be rethought? Collectively we move, sing, and embody rituals – offering something this aching world urgently needs: a place to mourn, to celebrate life and to honor the beauty of the world, to practice gratitude, to declare our faith, to refresh our values, and to freely play with identities – until they dissolve into the void.
With Agnes Hestholm, Despina Laroum Tourlakidou & Melodi Yüce
Artistic Advisor Hanin Majadli
In an open-source public process, we practice liturgies as scores for performative actions – questioning them, reformulating them, and fusing them together.
The public is invited to congregate in a contemporary sacred space that is free, inclusive, doubtful, curious, and loving – a space without marginalization, suppression, or violence, where we search for a new belonging and practice being together. In this new service, participants are encouraged to bring their own rituals that inform the process, while guest experts contribute insights, and together we ask: What makes rituals relevant today? Which should we carry into the future? And which need to be rethought? Collectively we move, sing, and embody rituals – offering something this aching world urgently needs: a place to mourn, to celebrate life and to honor the beauty of the world, to practice gratitude, to declare our faith, to refresh our values, and to freely play with identities – until they dissolve into the void.
With Agnes Hestholm, Despina Laroum Tourlakidou & Melodi Yüce
Artistic Advisor Hanin Majadli
Bühne Leonard Schulz & Hanna Naske
Costums Essie Kramer
Dramaturgy Sarah Marée & Simon Meienreis
