Marc-Uwe Kling in Berlin

Marc-Uwe Kling is a German author, cabaret performer and singer-songwriter, born in Stuttgart in 1982. He is best known for the satirical Känguru series, which began as radio pieces for Fritz and expanded into books and audiobooks. His other major works include the dystopian novel QualityLand. Marc-Uwe Kling began performing on poetry-slam and cabaret stages, presenting spoken texts alongside his own songs. He subsequently brought the Känguru stories into theatres as live readings, using distinct voices for the narrator and his communist kangaroo flatmate, and later presented readings built around QualityLand.

Bodo Wartke is a German pianist, singer-songwriter and musical cabaret performer, born in Hamburg in 1977. His work pairs piano-led songs with intricate rhyme, satire and spoken word; widely known pieces include the multilingual “Liebeslied” and the tongue-twister song “Barbaras Rhabarberbar,” recorded with Marti Fischer. The solo programme “Ich denke, also sing’ ich” introduced the piano-cabaret format that has shaped his theatre work. He followed it with programmes including “Achillesverse” and “Noah war ein Archetyp,” then adapted Greek tragedy as the one-man piano play “König Ödipus.” Later theatre tours were built around “Klaviersdelikte” and “Wandelmut,” each centered on Bodo Wartke at the piano.