From LED bulbs to living plants: German theatre tackles climate crisis on and off stage

With tickets doubling as public transport passes and recycled props, Hans Otto Theater is embracing a 3m federal project to make culture climate neutral

A handful of Spanish conquistadors fight through thick undergrowth to emerge in the ivy-clad ruins of a fallen civilisation during a rehearsal of Austrian playwright Thomas Kock's Your Palaces Are Empty.

Premiered last month at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam, south-west of Berlin, the bleak and unforgiving drama probes the wounds of a shattered capitalist world that has exploited its people and the planet's resources.