A Year Without Summer

BEATRICE CORDUA 1943 — 2025

Goodbye, Trixie unadjusted. Unagitated. Faced. And a stately presence on stage, a monolithine in structure, clarity and sharpness. Beatrice Cordua danced at the Volksbühne with Johann Kresnik back in the 1990s and recently returned as matador with Florentina Holzinger and ensemble. Nudity is her costume in this raw standing, and costume is not a question of age. She became a queen and remains a star in the dancing sky. You're missed, thanks and goodbye, Trixie.

2025 — a year without summer. The world appears raptured, plunged into darkness and deprived of all certainty. A reality in which daily survival becomes a ritual, despair and ecstasy dance hand in hand.

Originally, 1816 went down in history as the “year without summer.” After the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia, the sky is full of ash, the sun is gone, the crops have failed — and the world is starving. 18-year-old Mary spends the cold summer months with other poets on Lake Geneva, where storms and darkness inspire her to write scary stories. Mary imagines Dr. Frankenstein, a scientific genius who forces nature to bow to his will and ends up in destruction with her monster made of body parts.

Florentina Holzinger and Ensemble explore the stories we tell about our bodies, health and identity, our decay and our environment: the quest for immortality in the 21st century, medical promises for rejuvenation, and the dangers of uncontrolled technological growth in a world shaped by AI, robotics and bioengineering. A Year Without Summer tells of the improvement of nature to perversion and is an attempt to play off the promise of eternal life against certain death.

But what happens when creation gives birth to a monster?

We recommend a minimum age of 18 years to attend the performance.

Please note: A Year without Summer includes

Blood and body fluidsSelf-harm actionsExplicit presentation of sexual actionsstroboscopic effects