Grips Theater

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The Grips Theater at the Hansaplatz underground station

The Grips Theater (proper spelling: GRIPS Theater ) is a children's theater in the Altona road on hansaplatz in Berlin district Hansa district of Mitte district . The year 1969 is considered to be the beginning of the history of the theater.

history

Emergence

In 1966 the theater for children in the Reichskabarett was built in Berlin . The Reich Cabaret was a well-known and successful left-wing cabaret group . The co-founder and one of the authors of the Reich cabaret group was Volker Ludwig . In the summer of 1966, theater for children began to be performed on the weekends . The fairy tale The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs , edited in a cabaret style, was given as a prelude .

Little by little, other plays prepared for children were developed, and more and more performances for children took place. The idea was not to just bring fairy tales to the stage, which was the standard theater for children at that time. Rather, imaginative pieces written especially for children should be performed that have a direct reference to the current world of children in the events on the stage. Pieces of fairy tales offered this topicality very little if at all.

Volker Ludwig and his brother, the cartoonist Rainer Hachfeld , wrote the first children's play in 1968. The play, which received much attention from the audience, was called Die Reise nach Pitschepatsch .

In 1969 it was agreed to become more socially critical as a children's theater . This resulted in the first socially critical children's play Stokkerlok and Millipilli , also by Volker Ludwig and Rainer Hachfeld. It was the first children's play of the Ur-Grips-Theater. According to Grips Theater's own short biography, the history of theater begins with this piece in 1969. Stokkerlok and Millipilli became a huge success. Many stages in Germany performed it and it was also staged abroad. In 1969 the piece received the Brothers Grimm Prize of the State of Berlin .

The concept of “modern children's theater with a socially critical background”, which was still quite new at the time, was not viewed positively by everyone. In the beginning, the theater had to face great criticism. It was often pointed out that the children in the plays of the Reichskabarett-Theater for children were cheeky and disrespectful towards adults. This also applied in part to Struwwelpeter, who was arranged in a cabaret style . But the emancipation of children and also the reference to their rights was conceptually intended. This did not always meet with approval, especially in the conservative camp.

The children's theater ensemble often asked its audience (i.e. the children and young people) to find out what is currently bothering them. The role of the sexes (e.g. girls' typical career choice: housewife) in society was a major issue. The troop took up this increasingly in the 1970s. The result was pieces that dealt with the problems of gender roles.

Spin-offs

Some actors in the children's theater split off in 1971. They wanted to work out an educational piece for children. The first performance became a public scandal. The actors called sexual taboo words and tried to show a very unrestrained way of dealing with sexuality. The troop became self-employed. This is how the Berlin children's theater “ Rote Grütze ” came about and their play We don't talk about it, and 30 years ago the successful play to educate young people What does love mean here? The story of Paul and Paula .

The name GRIPS

The children's theater moved to the Forum Theater on Kurfürstendamm in 1972 . Since they no longer played in the rooms of the Reich Cabaret, the name was also changed. At the end of May 1972, the decision was made to use the name GRIPS, which should symbolize fun in thinking . The graphic designer Jürgen Spohn created the logo for it: a black face with a thick nose that peeks out of a cardboard box with the word GRIPS on it.

Move to the Hansaviertel

Another move was due in 1974. They moved to Hansaplatz , the center of the southern Hansaviertel , a model settlement of post-war modernism . The building was built in 1957 according to plans by Ernst Zinsser and Hansrudi Plarre as part of the international building exhibition " Interbau "; in front of the children's theater it housed the “Bellevue” cinema. The new house was opened on September 30, 1974.

The premises were converted according to our own ideas. The stage was framed by the spectator benches; a kind of arena was created. The actors were thus in the midst of the audience. It is still possible today to place the audience on all four sides of the stage; however, one side is usually used for the background scenery and the audience is placed on three sides. The stage is not raised. The actors and the audience in the first row are on the same level. The house can accommodate around 360 to 400 spectators. The entrance is decorated with a mosaic with a caricature by Rainer Hachfeld.

Since the building is spatially connected to the Hansaplatz underground station , visitors have the opportunity to visit the theater by public transport .

and display information about the image
Mosaic at the Grips Theater, Altonaer Strasse 22, in the Hansaviertel

First plays for young people

In the past, the focus was more on plays for children. But the problems of young people should also be part of the concept. So in 1975 the first play for young people was created with the name That can't stand it in the head.

Conflicts

With this play began a public political discussion about the Grips Theater. The CDU in Berlin at the time (in opposition at the time) spoke of the Grips Theater as a communist child spoiler . The theater was also heavily attacked in the newspapers of Springer Verlag . These public discussions had an interesting side effect for the Grips Theater - everyone was talking about it. The Grips Theater became very famous. The audience brought the house to sold-out performances almost every evening.

The subject of squatters was touched on in 1981 in the youth play: Alles Plastik . But just touching on this topic was enough to let the waves of public discussion (especially in the conservative camp) rise again.

Pieces for adults

In 1980 there was a play for adults: A Left Story is a cabaret-like play in which the story of three students is traced, which was shaped by the student movement and the “ German Autumn ”. In line with the development of contemporary history, the piece was continually updated and also addressed subsequent events such as German reunification . However, since autumn 2007 the original version from 1980 has been on the program again.

line 1

→ Main article: Line 1

Volker Ludwig wrote the musical revue Line 1 in 1985 . The music was written by his longtime friend and the musical head of the Grips-Theater, Birger Heymann , as well as the band No Ticket (Kranz, Keller, Kottman, Brandt, Wester, Witting). The premiere took place on April 30, 1986. It became the greatest success of the Grips Theater.

The play is about a young woman who is looking for a boyfriend in Berlin. She takes the U1 line of the Berlin subway and meets a wide variety of characters there. This is exacerbated by the fact that the U1 was nicknamed Orient Express at the time, as it ends at the Schlesisches Tor underground station , which is located in the middle of Kreuzberg , which was still dominated by Turkish immigrants at the time . Line 1 therefore also contains socially critical elements - as is usual for Grips pieces. In general, however, it is an amusing portrait of Berlin society at the time of the Wall .

The success of the play also had its downsides: Because of the technically relatively complex and expensive show, it was no longer possible to cover the costs with the net proceeds from ticket sales. After Volker Ludwig mentioned in a talk show that the house would have to close if there was no political support, the authorities increased the basic subsidy .

The piece was initially ignored by all of Germany's major theaters. Only when the Stuttgart State Theater successfully performed the play did other theaters follow suit. Nationwide was known line 1 characterized in that a plurality of songs in the ARD - Satire telecast wipers were performed. It was later performed very successfully in other countries.

Line 1 was the most played German play of its time. After the Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht , it is the most successful German musical . As an author, Volker Ludwig received the Mülheim Dramatist Prize in 1987 , the most important award for German-speaking authors.

Brains today

Volker Ludwig in the cloakroom of the Grips Theater

In addition to the large theater in Altonaer Strasse, the house has had a so-called 'studio and rehearsal stage' since 1992. Until 2009, smaller productions were still staged in the workshop of the Schillertheater on Bismarckstraße , but since 2009 the second venue has been “GRIPS Podewil” in Palais Podewils on Klosterstraße . The Grips Theater usually publishes four new pieces each year. There are around 300 performances a year.

After Volker Ludwig left the artistic direction from the 2011/2012 season, he appointed Stefan Fischer-Fels as his successor, who had previously worked at the Junge Schauspiel Düsseldorf / Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus . In 2015, Ludwig and Fischer-Fels agreed to terminate the contract early. Fischer-Fels moved back to the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. From 2016/2017, Ludwig appointed the in-house theater teacher Philipp Harpain as the new artistic director of the children's theater.

Towards the end of the 2017 season and on his 80th birthday, Ludwig also retired from management. Philipp Harpain was given the organizational responsibility for the Grips Theater. The theater critic Rüdiger Schaper paid his farewell to Ludwig with the words: “Berlin has produced quite a bit of world theater. Volker Ludwig and the brain are part of it. […] A wonder. What luck to have witnessed that. "

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of GRIPS, the director Vassilis Koukalani, who has been carrying Grips plays to Athens since 2011, is staging the play “The gap in the site fence”. It is a new version of Volker Ludwig's “Balle, Malle, Hupe und Artur”.

ensemble

actor

The Grips Theater has also produced well-known television actors. For example, Dieter Landuris , Petra Zieser , Heinz Hoenig and Axel Prahl were actors in the ensemble of the Grips-Theater. Even Dietrich Lehmann , Julia Blankenburg , Nadine Warmuth and Mathias Schlung belonged to the ensemble of the Grips Theater.

Musician

Axel Kottmann, George Kranz and Matthias Witting, who joined the ensemble between 1978 and 1986, formed the band Zeitgeist from 1980 to 1983 . Kranz is also successful as a solo musician. Since 1986, the start of line 1 , Thomas Keller on saxophone and Michael Brandt on guitar can also be heard in the permanent Grips band . These musicians helped to compose and arrange the music of line 1 .

Awards

literature

  • Henrik Adler, Stefan Fischer-Fels, Kirstin Hess (eds.): From tomorrow ...! About theater for children in the future. Publisher Theater der Zeit 2016.
  • Gerhard Fischer: The Grips Theater and Power . In Birgit Haas (ed.): Power: Performativity, Performance and Political Theater since 1990 . Königshausen & Neumann 2005, ISBN 3826030400 , pp. 183–196.
  • Gerhard Fischer: GRIPS. History of a Popular Theater (1966–2000) . Iudicum Verlag 2002, ISBN 978-3-89129-741-4 .

Movies

  • Theater landscapes: GRIPS Theater Berlin. Documentary, Germany, 2008, 30 min., Script and director: Jobst Knigge , moderation: Esther Schweins , production: ZDFtheaterkanal , 3sat , ZDFdokukanal , series: Theaterlandschaften, first broadcast: December 28, 2008 on 3sat, summary by broadview.tv .
  • Make-up removed: Volker Ludwig. TV portrait, Germany, 2008, 20 min., Script and director: Johanna Schickentanz, production: ZDFtheaterkanal , series: make-up, first broadcast: December 5, 2008 on ZDFtheaterkanal, synopsis by fernsehserien.de .

Web links

Commons : Grips-Theater  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claudius Prößer: Grips Theater celebrates anniversary: 50 years of liberating laughter . In: The daily newspaper: taz . June 8, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on August 11, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Grips Theater Berlin 1969 - 2009. In: www.grips-theater.de. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Grips Theater Berlin 1969 - 2009. In: www.grips-theater.de. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ A Left Story - The Original. Theater play with cabaret. ( Memento from March 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: GRIPS Theater
  5. ↑ Patrick Wildermann: Grips Theater. The encouragement gang. In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 24, 2015, interview with Philipp Harpain and Volker Ludwig.
  6. ^ Rüdiger Schaper : On the 80th by Volker Ludwig. The miracle from Hansaplatz. In: Der Tagesspiegel , June 12, 2017.
  7. ↑ Schedule - GRIPS Theater. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Claudius Prößer: 50 years Grips Theater: "Parents are not the problem" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . June 8, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on August 11, 2019]).

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 7 ″  N , 13 ° 20 ′ 31 ″  E