Sanctus Dominus Taurus

With Sanctus Dominus Taurus, Laura Oppenhäuser takes a radical step: instead of standing alone on stage, she invites a group of “real” men into the theatre. Recruited via dating apps, fitness and martial arts studios, and S-Bahn stations, artisans, apprentices, and wedding DJs encounter a 40-year-old, heterosexual, dating-affine woman whose life has been profoundly shaped by men.

What follows is not a conventional role play, but a controlled derailment. There is no script, no fixed roles, no safety net. Patriarchal power structures begin to wobble, the alpha figure loses control—and this is precisely where the core of the work lies. Boundaries are negotiated, expectations collide, and rigid attributions begin to crumble.

Here, where people meet who would never encounter one another outside this stage, a music-driven, craft-based performance emerges: there is hammering, singing, drilling, smoking, stench. A work full of friction, humor, and gravity—about masculinity, desire, power, and the imposition of closeness. Men, after all. And one woman.

Team:

• Concept / Artistic Direction / Performance: Laura Oppenhäuser
• Performing Muses: Enis, Anton, Ben, Mohamed, Luciano, Max, Patrick-Dennis, Valentino, Vito
• Scenic Dramaturgy: Nikola Durić
• Costume Design: Aaron Alexander Arnoldt
• Sound: Ivan Syrov
• Church Windows: Nia Kanevsky
• Graphic Design: Peter Franck, Laura Oppenhäuser, Nia Kanevsky
• Production Management: Toni Böckle

Credits:

Men on the Altar – Laura Oppenhäuser Shatters Roles, Rituals, and Power Structures with SANCTUS DOMINUS TAURUS

Laura Oppenhäuser works in a process-oriented, resistant manner, driven by a keen appetite for friction. As a performer and theatre maker, she is interested in power and powerlessness, in enduring otherness—and in the question of how far artistic freedom can go when it is only partially safeguarded. Her works are direct, physical, and often provocative, without ever becoming unambiguous. Autobiographical elements merge with fiction, naivety with precision, humor with provocation.

Trained as a silversmith and puppetry artist, Oppenhäuser has been working as a freelance artist since 2013. Alongside her own artistic practice, she has long been active in building structures within the independent performing arts scene—among other roles, as production manager of 6 TAGE FREI. Her works function as exercises in relinquishing control: asking questions, testing boundaries, enduring situations—even when they become uncomfortable.