Berlin is not a city that tries to hard to seem what is not. Is unfiltered. Do you agree? This year I found myself thinking about the contrast between the raw edges of Berlin and the joy of cultural moments in elegant halls. So many contradictions in modern cities and classical art, and if you find it also confusing – you are not alone.
Last spring, I wrote about a few plays I attended in Berlin during the first months of 2024. Those theater evenings sparked questions. I was already drafting the first lines of that post in my head while sitting in the audience at Deutsches Theater, Wintergarten Varieté, and Komödie am Kurfürstendamm.
Read – Theater nights in Berlin | 2024
Before and after Berlinale, this winter and spring, I saw several plays, but I chose to focus on the ones that stayed with me—those I learned from, I want to remember and I recommend. The first lines were also already writing themselves in my mind as I sat in the audience at Admiralspalast, Chamäleon Theater, Renaissance Theater, and Schaubühne.
Today, we have classical theater, as well as what is considered modern such as experimental. Plus improvisational, musical theatre, many revue / varieté, while Berlin is also a stage for lively cabaret shows. As written also last year, in terms of theaters, numbers are also impressive, as Berlin has over 150 theaters, venues and play stages all over the city, plus three opera houses and therefore, an option paradox.
1. Admiralspalast – Berlin Berlin in January was entertaining. Set in perhaps one of the most beautiful theatre of this city, on Friedrichstraße in Mitte. This revue musical Berlin Berlin takes you back to the roaring Golden Twenties, where flappers dance the Charleston and singers declare their love for the capital.
While seated in the red velvet seats of the Palast, we hear songs as “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, “Cabaret” or “Somewhere in the World” impersonating Anita Berber, Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker. At the end of the show I was wondering why the spirit of 1920s jazz continue to fascinate many of us — a decade full of contradictions, with a mix of postwar excess and a sense of nostalgia.
2. Chamäleon Theater in historic Art Nouveau Hackesche Höfe in Mitte – for the Play Dead by the Canadian contemporary circus People Watching. The start of the piece is meditative and the rest extraordinary, but enigmatic, defying gravity (not in a wicked way) and hard to describe.
During the first set I remember thinking that time tends to slow down when you attend a (good) show. On top of that, the performance blends acrobatic elements, theater and dance with varieté, while the music in the background was the perfect choice. According to the review of stagelync, “the title emphasizes the juxtaposition of playful ease (play) and the uncanny (dead)”.
Read also about a Theater night in London
3. Next, Marlene in March at stunning Renaissance Theater has been highly praised. Is based on Pam Gems’ play, a tribute to Marlene Dietrich, and my favorite performance attended from this season. Marlene was remarkably portrayed by Dutch-German performer Sven Ratzke. What has made a lasting impression was also the music of the pianist Jetse de Jong.
Lastly, I have to say that the Renaissance Theater in Charlottenburg in the West of Berlin – is a gem and truly beautiful — the last remaining theater in Europe in Art Deco architecture. Everything is exquisite, from the ceiling, elegant chandelier and the walls depicting scenes from the Commedia dell’Arte.
4. Part of FIND (Festival Internationale Neue Dramatik) at contemporary Schaubühne, presenting a piece from New York: the complex play Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, about the real 1965 intellectual debate on racism and society.
In 2025, FIND took part from April 4 to 13 at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, also in West. What an opportunity to have access to live international plays, and learn more about the African American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin. At the end of the play, we also were invited to join a panel discussion with John Collins, the Artistic Director and the actors of Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge.
What is next? Before summer, this season will also have musical nights—from Balbina with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra at the Philharmonie Berlin, to a Verdi Gala and tango in the Kammermusiksaal, fado and flamenco, or the piano of Ludovico Einaudi music in Französischer Dom and an underground Labyrinth performance in Musikbrauerei.
What a privilege to be surrounded by so much culture. The memories in this city are so far priceless.
Feature picture credit of Renaissance Theater – Wolfgang Bittner www.berlin.de/
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