Estonian-German co-production “PL[AI]” to premiere at the theater junge generation in Dresden

On January 9th, 2026, the Estonian-German co-production “PL[AI]” will premiere at the theater junge generation (tjg.) in Dresden, Germany. “PL[AI]” combines improvisational theatre with artificial intelligence to achieve the most excellent, moving, exciting, and stirring stage performance possible through the collaboration of young audiences and the troupe.

“Usually, it is clear long before the performance what story will be played out on stage. The roles have long been assigned, and the video and sound solutions are safely in place. But not with us. At the beginning of the performance, the audience comes up with the characters and the setting. The entire text (and, in fact, the music and visuals) is created right before the audience’s eyes – by artificial intelligence. And the actors have to perform the brand-new play immediately. Of course, the creative collaboration between humans and machines does not go without strange and comical mishaps. That is why there is also a dramaturg on stage who quickly guides the machine back onto the right track. And so, through joint effort, a damn intense performance is achieved. Or at least that’s how it should go. But every PL[AI] performance is a leap into the unknown – an attempt to see how useful the theatre makers who present the stories and the machines that produce the stories can actually be to each other,” the creators write in their introduction.

Since August 2025, Germany’s largest theatre for young audiences, tjg. has been run by Ulrike Lessmann and Estonian dramaturg Mihkel Seeder, who also plans to bring Estonian theatre makers to the stage. As a first step, he invited director Helen Rekkor, who began her AI experiments with the production “Konsiilium” at the Paide Theater (2023). “PL[AI]” is the next step on this path.

The production team consists of the author and director Helen Rekkor, scenographer Sander Põldsaar, developer Helena Väinmaa, dramaturg Oliver Meyer, sound designer Karolin Killig, and director’s assistant Elisa Ender. The cast includes Mats Ole Albrecht, Josephine Buchwitz, Delia Fiordilino, Mirko Näger-Guckeisen, Paul Oldenburg, and Oliver Meyer. The performances are held in German and English.

More information: https://www.tjg-dresden.de/inszenierung/plai

Photo by theater junge generation.