Paris afterwards at the German Theatre Göttingen: Theatre against forgetting

Paris afterwards: A multi-voiced evening about loss, memory, and hope

On November 3, 2026, the German Theatre Göttingen presents Laurent Gaudé's Paris afterwards. The German-language premiere directed by Schirin Khodadadian takes the audience into a mild Parisian autumn evening, where cafés, streets, and a concert are initially filled with the sounds of life – until gunfire, explosions, and horror shake the city.

When life suddenly goes out of sync

A young woman eagerly awaits her beloved. Twin sisters want to celebrate their 30th birthday together. A young mother seeks a brief escape from a quarrel at a concert. In these seemingly incidental moments, the production unfolds the warmth of everyday life: conversations under the open sky, music, movement, and the shimmering promise of a long night.

Then the atmosphere shifts. Laurent Gaudé tells of the attacks of November 13, 2015, and of a city whose familiar spaces transform into places of fear within moments. The dramaturgy not only follows the victims but also relatives, emergency responders, and all those whose lives were irrevocably changed by that night.

A choral piece against forgetting

Paris afterwards is not a documentary portrayal but a linguistically condensed stage composition. The text bears the traits of a classical tragedy and connects individual fates into a multi-voiced choral piece. From the perspective of acting, a sensitive tension arises between personal memory, collective trauma, and the persistent desire for human closeness.

The German-language version by Margret Millischer preserves the poetic intensity of the original. The set and costumes by Carolin Mittler, the music by Johannes Mittl, and the dramaturgical work by Stephanie Wedekind add additional layers of expression to the production. Light, sound, and bodies tell of a world that is falling apart – yet still seeks a way back to life.

Direction between horror and humanity

Schirin Khodadadian focuses on the people behind the historical rupture. The direction approaches the material with concentration and allows the theatrical atmosphere to emerge from the voices, movements, and breaks of the characters. The stage becomes a space of memory: a place where private hopes and public catastrophe collide.

Laurent Gaudé, born in Paris in 1972, studied literature and taught at the Sorbonne. He received the Prix Goncourt in 2004 for his novel Die Sonne der Scorta. Paris afterwards premiered in 2024 at the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris and now makes its way to Göttingen as a German-language premiere.

A theatrical experience that resonates

This theatrical experience takes you right into a night whose consequences extend far beyond the moment of the attack. The production combines precise dramaturgy, intense acting, and musical condensation into an evening about grief, solidarity, and the power of survival.

Whoever experiences Paris afterwards live encounters a theatre evening of great emotional impact and societal relevance. Secure your tickets for the performance at the German Theatre Göttingen and witness how stage art transforms memory into the present.

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Sources:

• Deutsches Theater Göttingen – Paris afterwards
• Rowohlt Theater Verlag – Paris afterwards
• Kölnticket – Paris afterwards on November 3, 2026
• meinestadt.de – Paris afterwards in Göttingen