Wunschkinder

No medical technique has had such direct social repercussions and impacted life planning, career planning, family models and gender roles as strongly as reproductive medicine. In what phase of life should we have children? How can we influence and control what kind of children we have? What price do we pay for this freedom and who pays it?
Following their successful joint theatre project Optimizing the Human Brain, the Theater Freiburg and the Interdisciplinary Ethics Center at the University of Freiburg have carried out a new project titled Wunschkinder [Planned Children] together with approximately 50 amateur actors. Working groups, comprised of directors, international scientists, dramaturges and amateur actors, began by jointly researching reproductive issues, such as dissociated parenthood and involuntary childlessness. A key aspect of the project involved collecting personal stories, a so-called “bioethical narrative”. These local stories have then been compared with extreme cases from the United States, Canada and Holland. The working groups collaborated with actors and developed theatre performances which premiered at the closing theme-based conference.

Curators: Oliver Müller, Joachim Boldt, Uta Bittner, Hans-Peter Zahradnik, Francoise Baylis (CA), Jean-Pierre Wils (NL); director: Boris Nikitin; projectmanager: Benjamin Glück, dramaturgy: Viola Hasselberg

Venue and schedule:
Theater Freiburg, 20 – 22 May 2011