In 2033, theater is a government-mandated requirement in the United States. At the Ohio Theater in Columbus, the ensemble is performing “Queer,” Volume 4 of the Encyclopedia of Values Above the Law. The aim of the performance is to commemorate the events in Dayton on May 16, 2028, which sparked a national resistance movement and led to political upheaval. On this historically significant day, Emily, a cis lesbian woman, and Costar, a trans lesbian woman, were supposed to get married, accompanied by their chosen family. But on this very day, the Ohio Supreme Court decides to declare same-sex marriage illegal. The registrar refuses to marry Emily and Costar.

Through the accounts of the couple and their friends, the ensemble tells a story of queer love, of resistance against this law, and of the national revolutionary movement that emerged from it. Yet there is discord within the ensemble: some feel like agents of the state with no artistic freedom, while others see the mandatory performance as an opportunity to convey the message to a broad audience. Do they serve the state or freedom? The ensemble begins to rebel against the state-mandated script. With gun-slinging poses, dust, and a showdown, they hijack the official narrative—and reinvent America’s founding myth: as a queer Western.

*Premiered on 16 May 2026 at Theater Freiburg.