Antonia Ruhl studied Theatre studies, modern German philology and Jewish history at Freie Universität Berlin. Her dissertation project has the working title “Theater der Entgrenzung. Ästhetik und Politik der Mehrsprachigkeit im Gegenwartstheater”. The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Matthias Warstat and has been funded by the Elsa-Neumann-Stipendium des Landes Berlin since April 2025.

The experience of linguistic diversity has become a daily reality in our globalized present, which is shaped by migration and mobility. On the one hand, it confronts us with the limits of our own understanding; on the other hand, technological translation tools increasingly enable us to communicate in real time. At the same time, however, this ‘dissolution of boundaries’ in the present is leading to conflicts and heightened calls for new boundaries —dynamics that are also addressed and reflected upon in European theatre. As a response, theatre is increasingly experimenting with multilingualism in order to negotiate the conditions of plural, post-migrant societies or simply to address a linguistically heterogeneous audience on site. With its complex semiotic system, theatre seems particularly well-suited to convey meaning in several languages that are not accessible to all audience members. Meaning can be created and communicated through certain facial expressions, gestures and body language of the performers—in some cases even without the use of traditional surtitles.

The involvement of (more) multilingualism is sometimes welcomed or even taken for granted, sometimes viewed with skepticism. Antonia Ruhl's project takes this as a starting point to examine the aesthetic, political and structural strategies and processes of multilingualism in theatre. Against the backdrop of a long historical tradition of multilingual performance, the project investigates the historical and demographic causes and forms of expression and organization of multilingualism in the performing arts. It considers multilingual productions and theatre texts, as well as the role of multilingualism in rehearsal practices and everyday theatre work, particularly within Europe’s increasingly international independent theatre scene.