This February 16th, the Dead Ladies Show returns to Berlin, and this time we’re doing it on a SUNDAY – so it’s starting an hour earlier, at 7 pm. Other than that, you’ll get exactly what you know and cherish about the show: three talks on ladies you’ll love to learn about, one in German and two in English, a charming audience, and a warm and entertaining atmosphere. Your beloved co-hosts FLORIAN DUIJSENS and KATY DERBYSHIRE will both be presenting, joined by a very special guest, the writer and blog producer MIKU SOPHIE KÜHMEL.
The Dead Ladies Show no longer has funding, so the non-reduced price is €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4. You can pre-order all tickets here. Doors open 6:30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!
Who are the ladies this time? Well…
We start way back in about the year 60 CE, with BOUDICA of the British Iceni tribe, who led a rebellion against the occupying Romans. We don’t know a whole lot about her, since the victorious Romans wrote the history books, so she became a bit of a blank slate for imperialist projections – most of which spell her name wrong. But the suffragettes also adopted her as a mascot, and hey, Enya wrote a song about her.
Our next dead lady lived closer to home: you can visit her house in Berlin-Heiligensee. HANNAH HÖCH was an artist in the Dada movement, creating collages from 1916 on and often addressing gender roles and expectations. The Nazis labelled her work “degenerate art” and made survival hard for her, but she managed to preserve numerous Dada artworks and documents from destruction. After the war she exhibited internationally again and gave lectures on women and art.
DOROTHY THOMPSON was a foreign correspondent and the first US journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, a pretty good sign. In Vienna and Berlin, she’d hung out with all the cool kids – maybe even Hannah. Back in the States, she provided commentary and analysis on Europe for newspapers, magazines, and NBC radio, warning urgently against the Nazis and advocating on behalf of Jewish refugees. Katharine Hepburn played a journalist loosely based on Thompson in a 1942 romcom, which Louis B. Mayer had rewritten to be less feminist.
Miku Sophie Kühmel hat Literatur- und Medienwissenschaften in New York und Berlin studiert. Seit 2017 produziert sie freiberuflich Podcasts für u.a Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutschlandfunk, Wondery, Audible und andere. Dabei ist sie auch als Dramaturgin und Autorin tätig. Nach Veröffentlichungen in Anthologien und Magazinen folgte 2019 der Debütroman Kintsugi, der einen Platz auf der Shortlist des Deutschen Buchpreises einbrachte, sowie den Jürgen-Ponto- Preis und den aspekte Literaturpreis des ZDF. 2022 erschien bei S.Fischer der zweite Roman Triskele, der im Folgejahr für den Clemens-Brentano-Preis nominiert war. Im Mai 2024 erschien die erste literarisch-essayistische Anthologie BRÜSTE, die sie zusammen mit Linus Giese beim Tropen Verlag heraus gab, Beitragende sind u.a. Antje Ravík Strubel, Daniela Dröscher und Audrey Naline. Zur Zeit arbeitet Miku im Deutschen Theater Berlin als Atelierautor*in an einem Stück, das im Juni 2025 im Rahmen der Autor*innentheatertage aufgeführt wird. Im Juli 2025 erscheint ihr neuer Roman.
Katy Derbyshire is a literary translator and part-time publisher, co-host and co-founder of the Dead Ladies Show.
Florian Duijsens edits, teaches, translates, travels, and is the co-host and co-founder of the Dead Ladies Show.
We would like to point out that the lift in the building is unfortunately not working at the moment. For this reason, access is currently restricted. We would like to apologise for this.
The Dead Ladies Show 