Tell Me Why

What It’s About

In its participatory theater project “Tell Me Why. AIDS in 1980s Cologne,” the Petra P. Production Office creates a fictional celebrity biography that stands in for the many people living with AIDS who could not come to terms with themselves, their sexuality, or the disease—because the social stigma and exclusion were too great.
In addition to this journey back in time to the early years of the disease, when a virus divided society (including the queer community) and spread fear and terror, the collective, together with experts, also brings the topic into the here and now: Has the disease lost its terror? What is life like with HIV today? Does AIDS still have a voice?
Once again, the lines between fiction and documentary are blurred: those who were among the early victims of the disease in the 1980s are given a posthumous voice, while at the same time raising awareness for the concerns of those living with the disease today—without a moralizing tone, but rather in an imaginative, theatrical, (self-)ironic, cheerful, and touching way.

Why you need to check it out

Known for brilliantly bridging the gap between high culture and outrageous trash, this queer ensemble tackles a topic rarely addressed in theater in its new participatory project: HIV/AIDS. It’s not light fare, but the Petra P. production office has a knack for presenting even serious topics in an unexpectedly entertaining way. Most recently at the Sommerblut Festival 2025 with “Traudl Junge” (awarded the Sommerblut Foundation Prize, nominated for the Cologne Theater Prize and the Kurt Hackenberg Prize for Political Theater): “A theater evening could hardly be more entertaining and thought-provoking.” (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger)

PSST

Behind “Tell Me Why” stands the production office Petra P., alongside experts specifically selected for the project: Daniel Breitfelder, Johannes Brüssau, and Sebastian Kreyer. Firmly rooted in Cologne’s independent theater scene, they interpret a wide variety of material through a queer lens, which also means discovering the tragic in the comic and the comic in the tragic.