P14: Gay nuns in a monastery

At P14, the Volksbühne Youth Theatre on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, young people bring their own topics. They decide what to show on stage and what form it takes. In Gay Nuns in the Monastery, Antoni Zawol deals with the question of how faith, family and queer identity play together and what happens when a place of oppression becomes a shelter.

Six young people come out to their parents and are sent to a monastery for a week on a radical conversion program. To their surprise, the monastery is just a dummy, created by a drag mother superior to protect queer young people. During the week, the six confront their queerness and their relationship with religion and family — and must learn to come to terms with themselves in the process.

Antoni is directing Gay Nuns in the Monastery for the first time. Together with Amadou, who have been playing at P14 for a long time and have just finished school, they give an insight into how they came to P14.

What do you do when you're not in the theatre? Antek: I've just finished my high school diploma and I'm trying to find my way in life. I also sing a lot — I'm currently training in classical singing, but I also sing in a rock band.Amadou: Dancing. Why do you want to do theatre?

Antek: Theatre has been a great passion for me since childhood. I love being surrounded by creative and artistically gifted people.Amadou: I like doing theatre because it gives me the courage to be someone other than myself and to take on new perspectives on myself and those around me. Theatre is the only place where I feel I have a strong voice.

Antek, you called the play Gay Nuns in the Convent. How did the idea come about and what is in it about you? Antek: The idea came to me when I saw a piece from P14 for the first time and the set-up of the stage threw a picture of a nun in glittering religious garb in my head. The rest then developed from this. For me, the piece is a self-reflective and personal examination of queer identities and experiences.

Amadou: I will develop choreographies for the piece and hope to leave traces of my language, the dancing, in the piece in order to enrich what has been told.

P14 is the Volksbühne's youth theatre on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. For over 30 years, young theatre professionals have been deciding here. To become part of P14, send an email to P14@volksbuehne-berlin.de.