Pantheon Theater

Logo of the Pantheon Theater

Entrance to the current location of the Pantheon Theater in Halle Beuel (since October 2016)

former entrance to the Pantheon Theater at the Bonn-Center (until July 2016)

The Beuel hall on Siegburger Strasse

The Pantheon Theater was founded in Bonn in October 1987 by the actor, director and cabaret artist Rainer Pause and is one of the most renowned cabaret theaters in German-speaking countries. It was located in the basement of the Bonn Center on Bundeskanzlerplatz until summer 2016 . After an investor bought the Bonn Center in order to demolish the building and use the property for a new building, the Pantheon Theater's lease was terminated in summer 2016. The last season in the Pantheon ended in mid-July 2016. On August 30, 2016, the lease for the new venue in the Halle Beuel (previously one of the locations of the Bonn Theater ) was signed between the City of Bonn and the Pantheon Theater. It runs for 30 years until October 31, 2046. The signing of the contract had been postponed several times by the Pantheon after there had been disagreements between the Pantheon operators and the city of Bonn in July 2016. The theater has been based in Bonn- Beuel since the end of October 2016 .

A conversion of the hall into a cabaret theater with a large (approx. 450 seats) and a small hall (150 seats) including catering should take place from 2017. At the beginning of 2018, however, the management of the Pantheon Theater announced that they had refrained from this project.

Cabaret

The Pantheon Theater offers a stage for both young artists and well-known greats of the cabaret scene and shows above all political cabaret , comedy theater, vocal music , readings and music theater. For numerous cabaret artists it is something like the “home stage”. Artists who perform regularly are, for example, Ingo Appelt , Jürgen Becker , Matthias Deutschmann , Gerd Dudenhöffer , Thomas Freitag , René Marik , Pause and Alich , Volker Pispers , Gerhard Polt , Hagen Rether , Wilfried Schmickler , Georg Schramm and Horst Schroth .

Since 1995 the Pantheon Theater has awarded the prestigious German cabaret prize Prix Pantheon , which was brought to life by Rita Baus (artistic director and managing director of the Pantheon until 2005). For reasons of space, the gala for the award ceremony usually does not take place in the premises of the Pantheon Theater but, for example, in the Bridge Forum Bonn-Beuel or on the Bonn Museum Square . Since then it has been broadcast annually by WDR and 3sat and moderated by Rainer Pause.

The oldest German "alternative carnival session" Pink Punk Pantheon , founded in 1983 by Rainer Pause and Norbert Alich among others , has been hosted in the Pantheon Theater since 1987 by the moderators and "association chairmen" Fritz Litzmann (alias Rainer Pause) and Hermann Schwaderlappen (alias Norbert Alich ) and attracts over 10,000 viewers every year.

In addition, broadcasts for the WDR radio program are regularly recorded in the Pantheon Theater, for example the "Vorleser im WDR" and "Das WDR Cabaret Festival".

Pantheon Casino

Since August 2012, the Pantheon Theater has had another venue in the immediate vicinity. The casino of the former Steigenberger Hotel in the basement of the Bonn-Center high-rise has since been used as an additional stage "Pantheon Casino" - with 80 seats. Both venues had separate entrances: The entrance to the Pantheon Theater was at the beginning of Reuterstrasse, the entrance to the Pantheon Casino was at the connection between the two Bonn Center buildings, the high-rise building and the side wing.

Other Events

In addition to the cabaret events, the Pantheon Theater's program included dance nights, which took place at regular intervals and primarily addressed adolescents and young adults. The seating in front of the stage was then dismantled and the room was converted into a dance floor.