Tender Talk No. 1:
Sibylle Berg & Dr. Ruth Westheimer

* Find the recording of the Tender Talk No.1 here *

Dr. Berg meets Dr. Sex: Our in-house friend and favourite author Sibylle Berg, who has steered us safely through the pandemic with sharp-tongued essays and comforting words, talks to Ruth Westheimer, better known as "Dr Ruth", in the first Tender Talk. The 92-year-old sociologist and sex therapist not only lives an extremely eventful life, but has also published at least 30 guidebooks on the subject of sex and has spent the last few years peeking into the beds of elderly people in particular. The German, who lives in New York, likes to say about herself: "I am 1.40 m of concentrated sex."

Living during the coronavirus pandemic, our bodies have become more vulnerable, our language more cautious, our approaches more tender. New encounters are rare - but that is exactly what we aim to try with the Tender Talks - conversations about closeness in times of distance. Every fortnight in February and March, the Schauspielhaus invites two individuals to engage in a dialogue on Zoom; where they get in touch with each other by speaking and thinking. Two guests meander their way through topics that move them - and perhaps touch something that also impacts us: how the way we deal with our bodies is changing in these times, how we experience intimacy differently, how tenderness could become a social motif and inspire a re-organisation of the political and private spheres through solidarity.

The conversation is held in German and translated into English.