'There Are Only Monsters Here'. On the Theatrical Uncovering of the No-longer-so-hidden in Current Right-wing Populist Contexts.

Abstract
On 10 January 2024, the media outlet Correctiv published research on a “secret meeting” of far-right protagonists near Potsdam, the so-called Düsseldorfer Forum, which was also attended by representatives of the parties AfD (Alternative für Deutschland/Alternative for Germany) and CDU (Christlich Demokratische Union/Christian Democratic Union). One week later, on 17 January, the Berliner Ensemble (in cooperation with the Volkstheater Wien) hosts a scenic reading of the research (staged by Kay Voges), which can be followed simultaneously as a livestream. With regard to right-wing extremist political statements and their protagonists, a heightened infiltration into political and everyday discourse can be observed: The generally unspeakable or unthinkable monstrous is increasingly taking center stage. The theatrical realization of Correctiv’s report makes such monstrosities visible in a way that renders suppression impossible: the monsters are actually there.
The reported “secret meeting” and its staged representation elucidates that the discourse on monsters needs to be expanded, in that monsters act in various locations of the normative spectrum – and intending to disrupt these. The emancipating monsters, empowering the marginalized, the ones not or little seen in society, the ‘other’ and the queer, now seem to find their counterpart: monsters that behave outside of the human and its conventions, unsettling democratic systems by using gaps and loopholes.