Top Secret International (State 1)

5.-15. January 2017

Renowned theater-makers Rimini Protokoll present the US premiere of their latest production, Top Secret International (State 1), an algorithmic-based interactive theater experience, at The Public Theater’s 13th annual Under the Radar Festival.

In the Egyptian Wing of the Brooklyn Museum, audience members turn into inconspicuous agents of espionage, navigating the global network of the intelligence community. Where will their mission take them? Who can be trusted? And what happens when the game is over? Is it a game? At a time of global surveillance scandals, no-spy agreements, and whistleblower platforms, Rimini Protokoll enters the global web of state secrets and secret services―the state within the state.


Rimini Protokoll is the label of the theater-makers Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, and Daniel Wetzel, who have been working collaboratively since 2000. Their groundbreaking stage productions, sound and radio plays, films, and installations deal with the theatrical elements of our reality, placing experts instead of actors at the center.


Top Secret International (State 1) is a production by Rimini Protokoll and Münchner Kammerspiele, coproduced by the Goethe-Institut and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, with support from Melbourne Festival.

Top Secret International (State 1) is co-initiated by the Goethe-Institut as part of Sensitive Data, a long-term international project. The Goethe-Institut's partners are Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education, Münchner Kammerspiele, and Bard College.

Top Secret International (State 1) is the first piece in Rimini Protokoll’s series, State 1–4, a cooperation between Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Münchner Kammerspiele, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Schauspielhaus Zürich, and Rimini Protokoll, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.