What If Berlin – Akira Takayama / Berliner Festspiele

75 Years of Berliner Festspiele — A City as a Stage

In 2026, the Berliner Festspiele will celebrate its 75th anniversary. Instead of a classic festival week at their own venue, they have opted for an unusual format: a performative urban project that turns the Berlin Ring Railway – the almost 37-kilometre-long S-Bahn ring line around Berlin's city centre – into an artistic stage.

Artist: Akira Takayama / Port B

The project is spearheaded by Japanese theatre maker Akira Takayama, founder of the interdisciplinary theatre collective Port B in Tokyo (2002). Takayama is internationally recognised as one of the most important proponents of “expanded theatre”: his projects move beyond the traditional theatre building, working with urban space, participatory formats, audio tours, and performances in which the audience becomes part of the performance itself.

The Concept

For “What If Berlin”, Takayama and his team research never-realised plans, projects, and visions – both from the history of the Berliner Festspiele and from Berlin's urban history (architecture, transport, art, urban planning). These “what if” scenarios are staged in a fictional present at the stations, in urban spaces, and in buildings along the Ring Railway.

Format: Guided Tours

Guided tours will take place over four weekends in late summer 2026. Tour Guides will accompany small groups with audio tours, specific stops at stations, and performances between urban space and the railway. The Berliner Festspiele advertised for Tour Guide positions in spring 2026 – an indication that the format is designed for several parallel groups.

Berlin as a Theatre Space

The Ring Railway as a venue is a deliberate choice: it runs through almost all Berlin districts (Mitte, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Treptow-Köpenick, Neukölln, Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Mitte/Moabit, Pankow, Lichtenberg) and makes the city tangible as a whole. This makes “What If Berlin” one of the most ambitious urban performances in the Berlin festival landscape in 2026.