THALIA THEATER

Description

Essentials about the Thalia Theater in brief

The Thalia Theater is one of Hamburg’s three state theaters, a spoken theater with a permanent and highly acclaimed ensemble. The large hall has about 1,000 seats, the repertoire comprises about 20 productions, which are performed daily in blocks. There are about nine premieres each season in the Großes Haus am Alstertor (en. “Big House at the Alstertor”). In addition to the main building in Hamburg’s Old Town, the Thalia Theater also has a branch in Gaußstraße in the Altona district.

The history of the Thalia Theater

The old building of the Thalia Theater was built in 1843 according to plans by architects Franz Georg Stammann and Auguste de Meuron. The former building stood opposite the present theater building (today the Thaliahof is located there). The name chosen for the theater was “Thalia”, the muse of comic poetry and entertainment.

In 1912 the new building of the theater on Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz was opened with 1,300 seats. At the end of the Second World War, the theater building was destroyed in bombing raids, but it was rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1960. The interior design by architect Werner Kallmorgen is considered an outstanding example of post-war modernism.

The Thalia Theater’s repertoire includes classics and modern classics by authors such as Shakespeare, Schiller, Wedekind, Molnár, Ibsen and Schnitzler, as well as plays by contemporary authors. Many of the best-known contemporary directors have staged plays at Thalia Theater. In the year 2000, the Dependence Thalia was opened in the Gaußstraße in Hamburg-Altona. The new studio stage with 200 seats quickly became one of the top addresses for contemporary theater.