Schauspiel’s coming home! Cologne’s iconic theatre returns to Offenbachplatz

Curtain up! On 19 and 20 September, the Bühnen Köln officially reopen after 14 years of renovation. Tickets for the new season are already on sale. So, what’s worth seeing?

Schauspiel Köln is leaving its temporary home at the Depot in Mülheim and returning to where it belongs. One thing’s for sure: the new season once again brings together poetry and politics, comedy and classics, social commentary and thought-provoking essays. Artistic director Kay Voges puts the big questions of our time centre stage.

So what makes this long-awaited return so special? We asked 4 people from 4 very different parts of Schauspiel Köln what they’re looking forward to most as they prepare for opening night.

What the Schauspiel Köln team is most excited about

• Rebekka Biener: The new season brings the laughs
• David Vogel: Participation and new perspectives shape the programme
• Joschka Tschirley: Where cutting-edge technology meets historic theatre
• Nicole Kechavarz: Good things come to those who wait

C for Comedy: The new season brings the laughs

Rebekka Biener, actress at Schauspiel Köln

I’ve been part of the ensemble since last season. This is the third theatre I’ve worked at. Before coming here, I was based in a much smaller city, so I was really excited about moving back to somewhere as vibrant as Cologne.

Of course I’m looking forward to the new building and to performing on a stage with so much history. What I find so exciting is that audiences, performers and everyone working behind the scenes will all experience this new beginning together. Whenever I step onto a stage for the first time, I can’t help wondering about its past – the stories it could tell and everything it has witnessed over the years.

That’s what makes the Schauspielhaus stage so special to me. It lay dormant for such a long time, yet before that it had a lifetime of stories to tell. Sometimes I imagine what it would say if it could talk. I’m sure it would have something wonderfully down-to-earth to say about everything it’s seen – and everything that’s still to come. Probably something like the Cologne saying: “Et hätt noch immer jot jejange” – roughly: it’ll all work out in the end.

I love theatre that can hit you hard and still make you laugh.

Last season explored many weighty, existential themes. It feels like the perfect moment for the new programme to embrace comedy more often. Cologne strikes me as a city with a brilliant sense of humour – a place that manages to find lightness even in difficult times. That spirit runs right through the season.

Picking just one highlight is almost impossible. But I’m especially excited about Kaspar by Peter Handke, directed by Claudia Bauer. There’s something wonderfully eccentric about the play, and I think that quality will really come to life in Cologne. Claudia Bauer has an incredible sense of humour and an energy that’s wonderfully infectious.

Then there’s Eine Sache der Auslegung by Olga Bach, which explores the absurdities of the legal system. That wonderful blend of the bizarre, the moving and the funny is exactly what I love about theatre.

One production feels especially important to me: Fatigue, a co-production with Studio Trafique, an independent theatre company in Cologne. Among other things, it focuses on artists living with ME/CFS and helps raise awareness of the condition.

David Vogel: Participation and new perspectives shape the programme

David Vogel, theatre educator at Schauspiel Köln

I’ve been with Schauspiel Köln for 7 years now. As a theatre educator, I’m responsible for Theater Stadt Schule, our participatory theatre education department. We develop programmes that invite people to take part, get involved and gain deeper insights into our productions. And that’s something we want to offer everyone.

That’s why I’m particularly excited that we’re expanding our programme for younger audiences, including children aged 5 and up. Our staged reading of Navid Kermani’s children’s book is sure to be great fun, and we’re bringing the spectacular pop opera Pinocchio to the stage. We want to create new ways for people to experience theatre.

Next season, for example, our youth club POLYLUX will explore ideas and expectations of masculinity. How do we define masculinity today? What does it mean for young people to grow up at a time when traditional ideas of masculinity are being questioned? We will also be staging OH BOYS! in the Kleines Haus – the first time our youth club will perform there.

Another highlight is the return of Downtown Paradise, our immersive city walk exploring solidarity in public spaces. It looks at how we move through places like Neumarkt – surrounded by shops, cafés and restaurants, while homelessness and addiction remain part of the same streetscape. What do we choose not to see? How does that happen? We want to open people’s eyes to places and perspectives that often go unnoticed.

We mustn’t allow ourselves to get too comfortable. I believe the theatre needs to reach out more and be more open than ever.

Until now, we’ve been spread right across the city. At one point, the Bühnen Köln were performing in as many as 36 different venues. Bringing everything back together again makes communication much easier and gives us the opportunity to develop ideas across the whole organisation. One of the biggest advantages of our new home is that we’ll be working much more closely together, creating stronger synergies and really making the space our own. At the same time, being back in the heart of the city shouldn’t mean losing sight of Cologne’s outer neighbourhoods. Quite the opposite – we want to keep involving local communities, inviting people in and, just as importantly, taking theatre out to them. We mustn’t allow ourselves to get too comfortable.

Everything we’re building is only possible because we know there’s an audience for it.

I believe the theatre needs to reach out more and be more open than ever. But that doesn’t simply mean throwing open the doors. It also means stepping beyond them. Giving people across the city the opportunity to participate and bringing their perspectives into our work is essential if contemporary theatre is to stay relevant. The only reason we can keep developing these projects is because we know there’s an audience for it. For me, that’s what makes this work so worthwhile – and what drives me to keep doing it.

Where cutting-edge technology meets historic theatre

Joschka Tschirley, sound technician at Schauspiel Köln

I’ve been working in the sound department since October 2017, supporting productions throughout rehearsals and taking care of everything to do with sound. Basically, if the audience hears it, it’s passed through our hands and ears first.

For well over a decade, we’ve done everything we could to make people forget the limitations of the Depot. It was an excellent temporary venue, but at the end of the day it was still an old factory hall. And an old factory hall simply doesn’t sound like a purpose-built theatre. The actors always had to wear microphones. That’s completely different in the new building. The other day I stood on stage while my colleagues were at the sound desk and whispered a few words as a test. They could hear me perfectly – all the way in the back row. That tells you everything you need to know about the acoustics. Now, audiences in the last row will hear every word just as clearly as those in the front, and everyone will share the same experience.

It feels as though this season reflects the world we’re living in more than ever before.

Ever since Kay Voges and the new artistic team arrived, the programme has taken on challenging subjects, from war to global conflict. But that’s the reality we’re living in, and theatre has the opportunity to bring those issues, and the conversations around them, closer to people. To me, this season feels more relevant than ever. Cologne audiences are especially receptive to that. They’re curious, thoughtful and genuinely appreciative of theatre that grapples with the big questions.

Good things come to those who wait

Nicole Kechavarz, front-of-house team leader at Schauspiel Köln

As front-of-house team leader, it’s my job to make sure our guests feel welcome and that everything runs smoothly. I’ve been with Schauspiel Köln since 2017, which means I never experienced the old Schauspielhaus before it closed. So for me, this feels like a brand-new beginning too.

I think day-to-day operations will be much easier in the new building because everything is designed to work together. At the Depot, we often had to improvise at short notice.

What I love most is seeing the foyer buzzing with happy people before a performance.

What I’m looking forward to most is the building’s original architecture and being back in the heart of Cologne. Hopefully, people who never made the trip out to Mülheim will discover us now that we’re back in the city centre. Its architecture is truly special, and so is the large auditorium with its outstanding acoustics. The foyer beautifully blends old and new. Original flooring near the entrance and the historic doors have been preserved, while modern additions, including 2 lifts, make the building fully accessible from the cloakroom right up to the top level.

There’s nothing better than seeing the foyer buzzing with happy people. After all, people come to the theatre because they’re looking forward to a special evening. Seeing that excitement and anticipation is one of the things I enjoy most about my job.

My personal recommendation for the new season is In bester Lage, a comedy directed by our artistic director Kay Voges. It takes a witty look at exactly what we’ve experienced here at Offenbachplatz: sometimes good things really do come to those who wait!