From campus canteen rehearsals to performance at Fringe, The Awesome Potatoes have come a long way!
Awesome Potatoes History
Born in 2015 among a handful of PhD students at Heidelberg University, our group has grown into a vibrant, international theater community. We've staged 20 plays, celebrated over 30 PhD defenses, and split into onsite and online crews to keep the magic alive. Whether you're watching or performing, you're part of something awesome.
How It All Started
The roots of our theater group go back to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
Veli Uslu, then part of a theater group at the institute, defended his PhD thesis and moved “down the hill” to the Heidelberg University campus. Missing what he considered a creative escape from postdoc life, he started a new group.
Little did he know…
Potatoes grow everywhere!
Our countries of origin
In May 2015 Veli advertised in the canteen on Uni Heidelberg natural sciences campus. Soon he heard back from fellow theater enthusiasts, mostly PhD students. This is why so many of us are biologists or physicists! And we are as international as the Heidelberg campus itselt
The first acts
Our debut show was "Miss Glossop’s Weekend Break", a comedic hit that set the tone.
We quickly followed with "Desperatos" and a scientific twist on a classic, "Romeo & Juliet in the Lab". These plays laid the foundation for our playful, often science-infused storytelling style.
Everyone is a Director
Under Veli’s mentorship, the group began to branch out—creatively and structurally.
With "Let’s Play", a musical-pantomime told entirely through songs, Kostas became the first of many new directors. It sparked a movement.
From Melania’s adaptation of an Italian TV series in "Smoke & Mirrors", to Emil’s interpretation of "The Woman from Earth", the directorial baton passed around. We staged a short-play collection, “Kartoffelsalat”, featuring pieces from 6 different directions.
Dive into our past shows and discover the weird, wild, and wonderful world of Potato theater.
Some of us are regular, some joined only for a show or two, some come back whenever time allows…
…but once a Potato, always a Potato!
When we started, we humbly called ourselves “The Big Thing” - and you can still find us under this name on our Facebook page.
However, it somehow never felt right…
Several hypotheses exist as to why we are called Awesome Potatoes. Is it to honor the french fries we used to eat in Cafe Botanik after the rehearsals? Is it because potato is the favourite carb of Germany? Is one of us fixated on the potato biology?
One thing is clear, though - our love for potatoes is significantly higher now!
Why “awesome potatoes”?
Our Home Stages
Although we kept rehearsing in the Canteen, we call Theater im Romanischen Keller our home stage. Tucked under the English Faculty in the heart of Heidelberg, it’s an intimate space with 80 seats and a garden out front.
When we need something larger, like for Lysistrata, we head to Hebelhalle, with 250 seats. It’s a bit intimidating, but perfect for big shows!
A Step Towards Activism
In 2019, we took a step into climate activism.
Under the direction of Asha, we performed a guest show at Karlstorbahnhof, followed by an open discussion on climate change.
This is where we live now!
Potato zooming
Composed of PhD students, out theater group had a high rotation of members - we were coming, playing in between experiments, defending PhD, and leaving again few years later. Until...
2020 was a transformative year for our group. Although with no hopes for any play, we begun meeting online, first just for fun. Out of desperation, online rehearsals were born, and then a theater play rehearsed almost entirely via zoom. "I do modelling" was the first show performed in Heidelberg by actors who gathered for it from Munich, Basel and Cambridge.
Since 2021, The Awesome Potatoes are actually two-potatoes-in-one.
One is a group that meets once per week on Uni Heidelberg campus and prepares shows with amazing frequency.
The Online Potatoes keep meeting on Zoom and working on plays at a slower pace, making sure to meet in person at least once for a live rehearsal. And our stage can't be any other place than Heidelberg...
Well, unless it is Edinburgh festival Fringe!
Awesome Potatoes at Fringe
In 2016 we performed "Romeo&Juliet in the lab" - a classic adapted to what we know best - scientific research, life of a PhD student, biological lab environment. The story on rivalry between competing labs was really well received in Heidelberg, with 500 people filling the audience. 9 years on, we are building on this adapted script but giving the story a new twist - and a new silent hero, a tardigrade.
We will perform at Fringe festival in August 2025. With a mix of original love drama, PhD struggles, excitement of scientific pursuit, and an unhealthy dose of competition, we promise to entertain, surprise, and make you ponder. You might also learn a thing or two about tardigrades. Get your tickets now!