Institutions, Stages, Festivals

Consisting of three stages, Kreuzberg’s theatre trust, the Hebbel am Ufer, also abbreviated as HAU (“Hit” in German), brings the most contemporary theatre, dance and performance trends to Berlin from around the world. Following the opening in 2003, the theatre immediately adopted a place as one of the most important venues for new forms of theatre. The HAU stages 1-3 act as a platform for a confrontation between art and other social discourses.

When the theatre trust Hebbel am Ufer 1-3 – short: HAU – first opened its doors in October 2003, proud young boxing boys and girls gazed down from Berlin’s billboard walls. Their faces were reddened from recent fights and bore clear marks from their last training sessions. The caption underneath the pictures was  the logo with the unmistakable abbreviation of the trust: HAU.

The photos, taken in a youth sport club not far away from the theatre, left no doubts whatsoever. This new institution – a fusion of three closely located stages, the Hebbel Theater, the Theater am Halleschen Ufer and the Theater am Ufer, which all needed renovating for different reasons – initiated by Berlin’s senator for culture at the time, Thomas Flierl, in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, would not produce hermetically sealed art only for audiences of aficionados. Instead, the theatre has its finger on the pulse of the realities of life. In a district shared by Turkish migrant families and young trendy urbanites that mean things can be pretty colourful at first glance. At a second look, it can hurt as well. And, third, the venue pays delightfully little attention to clear genre boundaries. HAU’s only clear agenda is to tread a thin line between theatre, performance, fine arts, music and a lively debating culture.

New Forms of Theatre

From his early career on, artistic director Matthias Lilienthal, has been looking for new forms of theatre – for example, as chief dramatic advisor to Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre from 1991 to 1998, or as director of the “Theater der Welt” Festival in 2002 in the Ruhr. There, for instance, he conceived the X-Wohnungen project, which in the meantime has become a worldwide theatre festival hit and has been staged again and again at the HAU, giving it a reputation as something of a mainstay in the house. The artists move beyond the confines of the theatre space and play pieces in private apartments, partly with actors, partly with real residents. The theatre literally opens itself into the city. Likewise, the district becomes a stage in itself.

The road is open in both directions, of course. Just like HAU artists leave the theatre, to play in real places, they also bring their surrounding reality to the stage. In his Warngedicht project, Turkish born director Tamer Yigit lets youths from a secondary school in Kreuzberg tell us about their everyday lives. And a HAU discovery, which has become famous around the world as an internationally acclaimed, prize-winning documentary collective, the Rimini Protokoll, works with so-called “Alltagsexperten” (“everyday life experts”) instead of with actors: real Vietnam veterans, mayor candidates or muezzins from Cairo, whose lives or professional lives become a multi-layered piece of documentary theatre on the stage.

International Theatre Trends

With its profile, the HAU has gained instant recognition. Following the first season in 2003/2004 it was voted the German “Theatre of the Year” by the reviewer jury of the “Theater heute” trade magazine. Since then it hasn’t stood one bit less still. With total subsidies of just about €4.5 million for all three stages, the HAU presents a proud average of 120 productions per season. And their theatrical trend scouts really are on the road in all corners of the world.

Which forms of expression do Brazilian choreographs develop when working with youths in the favelas? What drives performers in a China somewhere between state socialism and free market capitalism? This is only an estimated hundredth of the global questions HAU has answered since its beginnings – often in mini-festivals.

Embedded in Discourse Fields

What is characteristic about the approach HAU has adopted – one that is totally unique to Germany’s theatre scene in its consequence and sophistication – is that it never sees artistic positions in isolation, but instead embeds them in a discourse field of lectures, debates and documentations. Often productions are accompanied by experts, who view the topics treated from other perspectives than from the purely artistic and who create immense added value. That, of course, is all part of the program at HAU. With the house’s lean budget, however, this is only possible with diligence that goes beyond the call of duty and by maintaining its networks. Thanks to highly acclaimed co-production partners, the HAU repeatedly manages to show some highly elaborate national and international projects.

On top of that, one of today’s three HAU stages also made theatre history four decades ago. In the 1970’s, the “Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer”, today’s HAU 2, was home to Peter Stein’s legendary theatre ensemble.