Decolonizing manuscripts: Columbus at Theater Lübeck
How do you decolonize a script for theater? A collaboration between Theater Lübeck and Phd-student Kuluk Helms
In connection with putting up the play “Columbus, or the “discovery” of the Americas” by Kurt Tucholsky, Walter Hasenclever’s original play since edited by Jura Soyfer, Theater Lübeck reached out to phd-student Kuluk Helms and asked her to act as decolonial editor of the play. Helms worked in close collaboration with dramaturg Cornelia von Schwerin.
The result was a very different version of the tale of Columbus – who, at the end of the play, disovered the audience rather than new land. Helms also added the characters “You” and “I”, which functioned as a modern link between the story and the collective “We” of the audience. Helms visited Theater Lübeck in July 2025, and engaged in a staged conversation with theater director Malte Lachmann about the process of decolonizing a script.
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