Schedule

Anlässlich des Kinostarts geht der Dokumentarfilm auf Theater-Tour – mit der Regisseurin Sandra Prechtel, Zeitzeug*innen und Schauspieler*innen.

This new work by the Italian director Silvia Costa combines two plays by Marguerite Duras, the grande dame of French literature. While in »La Musica«, on the evening after their divorce, a couple take a realistic look back at the life they shared and imagine what might have happened if they had stayed together, »The English Lover« presents the nightmare version of the end of a relationship, in which violence that has been smouldering for years erupts.

Tessa Ensler is a successful lawyer whose supreme discipline is the defence of defendants in sexual assault cases. Then she herself is raped - by a colleague. She reports him and is now on the other side of the cross-examination - as the victim. With »Prima Facie«, Suzie Miller gives a voice to millions of women who suffer violence worldwide.

Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel »Lolita« became a bestseller, albeit a controversial one. Since its publication, it has been the subject of heated debate, with accusations of pornography and calls for a ban on publication on the one hand, and admiration for its literary finesse on the other. The author viewed his title character – who has become a dubious myth – through the eyes of her stepfather. In her successful debut novel, Lea Ruckpaul allows Dolores Haze to survive and recounts the story of years of abuse in retrospect, with the analytical insight of an adult woman who does not wish to be understood solely as a victim.

For her first production at the Residenztheater, the director Rieke Süßkow, renowned for the thoroughly composed aesthetic of her work, has chosen the last drama of the great Spanish writer Federico García Lorca. Its protagonist Bernarda Alba is a widow who declares eight years of mourning after the death of her husband and turns her house into a form of prison for her five daughters while unquestioningly accepting the patriarchal system of provincial Spain.

Freddie Mercury, front man of the legendary British rock band Queen, spent a lot of time in Munich from 1979 to 1985. He lived in several apartments here, forged close friendships and recorded his first solo album. What drew him to the Isar? Love, the wild nightlife and the many meeting points of the city’s gay community? The Musicland Studios of Giorgio Moroder and their pioneering innovations in electronic music? Or did he simply want to avoid the rigid British tax laws?

Twice a year we offer a training day for teachers. You want to get your students in the mood for the upcoming theater visit and are still looking for impulses for practical implementation? In the three-hour training course, we show you examples of how our plays can be taught in a simple and playful way.

Asiimwe Deborah Kawe's play tells the story of the life's work of an undocumented immigrant. Like so many others, the nurse Achen, the author's main character, contributes with her labour and as a taxpayer to the prosperity of a country that has decided to expel her overnight.

»Two souls dwell, oh! in my breast« – with these words Goethe’s Faust describes not only a personal drama, but an experience of modern subjectivity: the ego manifests itself as a texture of contradictory forces.  Goethe’s drama presents modern man as driven by a principle of continuous escalation – caught between self-control, consumerism and destruction. Ulrich Rasche presents these events as an interiorised chamber play. Its characters embody the forces of a conflicted consciousness; Mephisto becomes a dark shadow of the protagonist himself.

1937 in a fishing village after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Mrs. Carrar has forbidden her sons to join the fight against Franco. She desperately hopes to be spared war and terror. But how much longer can she protect herself and her sons? And what should she say to her brother, who demands that she hand over the guns hidden in the house and asks the all-important question: »If the sharks attack you, is it you who will use violence?« In Brecht's short play, everything revolves around the unsettling question of the possibility of neutral abstention. In his play »Choking Lead«, playwright Björn SC Deigner continues Brecht's question in the present and searches for a language for the timeless horror of war and destruction.

Every Saturday you have the opportunity to discover the world behind the scenes at the Residenztheater.

One last day in Paris, the final hours of a great love affair and the certainty that nothing will ever be the same again. In »Abschied (Parting)«, Sebastian Haffner recounts his last encounter with his beloved Teddy. Between cafés, museum visits, fleeting encounters and intense conversations, the carefree attitude to life of the early 1930s becomes increasingly apparent. The novel accompanies the two through hours of closeness, doubt and hope until the moment on the platform that irrevocably separates them. Poetic, atmospherically dense and very personal, Sebastian Haffner describes not only the end of a great love, but also the farewell to his own youth and an era shortly before its demise. Haffner needed only a few weeks in 1932 to write this novel, which until recently had remained unpublished. Director Matthias Rippert is now bringing the material to the stage for the first time, continuing his work at the Residenztheater after the success of »Blind«.

24 hours in the Englischer Garten. Somewhere between Monopteros and the Haus der Kunst – in ten scenes and each time in pairs – DJ Ada, businessman Franzi, poet Graf, cleaner Maro and sex worker Eleonore meet. The multi-award-winning playwright Anja Hilling rethinks Arthur Schnitzler’s »Reigen« for the present. 

»Two souls dwell, oh! in my breast« – with these words Goethe’s Faust describes not only a personal drama, but an experience of modern subjectivity: the ego manifests itself as a texture of contradictory forces.  Goethe’s drama presents modern man as driven by a principle of continuous escalation – caught between self-control, consumerism and destruction. Ulrich Rasche presents these events as an interiorised chamber play. Its characters embody the forces of a conflicted consciousness; Mephisto becomes a dark shadow of the protagonist himself.

»After Midnight« tells the story of two days in 1936. Nineteen-year-old Sanna takes refuge with her brother Algin, a blacklisted author. In between the parties, cafes and bars she begins to recognise that the world she lives in has been increasingly taken over by ideology. Keun’s novel from exile is a haunting depiction of daily life under fascism – her second international success after »The Artificial Silk Girl«.

Oedipus, the lead candidate of a new political movement, is as good as assured of election victory. But why are the circumstances of his predecessor’s fatal road traffic accident classified? And what is the fake news regarding his origins about? Oedipus starts to investigate – despite all the warnings. As in his updating of Schnitzler’s »The Doctor«, Robert Icke has radically translated a theatre classic into the present. Icke’s »Oedipus« looks behind the myth and is both a family tragedy and a political thriller.

Heinrich Mann’s perceptive bildungsroman published in 1914 »The Loyal Subject« is a wickedly humorous portrait of the Wilhelmine Empire and its self-congratulatory middle classes with their nationalistic fantasies of being a great power. Mann’s protagonist Diederich Hessling is a spineless opportunist with no moral courage. He only forgets his insecurities at the stammtisch, working himself up to give great nationalistic speeches. However, Mann does not present Hessling as a joke – he is a complex but ultimately warped personality with a blind faith in authority.

After a quarter of a century, Brandner Kaspar returns to the Residenztheater – and how! Based on Franz von Kobell's dialect story, Franz Xaver Kroetz tells the story of the Bavarian stubborn man who refuses to bow even to Death himself, the Boanlkramer, in a very honest and touching way, yet completely unsentimental and with a great deal of humour. Munich-based film, theatre and opera director Philipp Stölzl brings the »Gschichtn vom Brandner Kaspar« to the stage as a »big picture book, because the play is, of course, a fairy tale«.

Heinrich Mann’s perceptive bildungsroman published in 1914 »The Loyal Subject« is a wickedly humorous portrait of the Wilhelmine Empire and its self-congratulatory middle classes with their nationalistic fantasies of being a great power. Mann’s protagonist Diederich Hessling is a spineless opportunist with no moral courage. He only forgets his insecurities at the stammtisch, working himself up to give great nationalistic speeches. However, Mann does not present Hessling as a joke – he is a complex but ultimately warped personality with a blind faith in authority.

A longtime favourite of Munich audiences, the exceptional actor Manfred Zapatka, appears as one of William Shakespeare’s great title characters: King Lear. The play is a character study of an ageing, unpredictable patriarch and tyrant. 

Under the indifferent moon of Soho, London’s underworld attempts to arrest Mack the Knife with songs and words that are polished as sharp as his own blade. With »The Threepenny Opera« (world premiere 1928), Brecht, Hauptmann and Weill created an entirely new form of music theatre. A play about a society in which everything is reduced to its monetary value and criminals are citizens – and vice versa.  

This new work by the Italian director Silvia Costa combines two plays by Marguerite Duras, the grande dame of French literature. While in »La Musica«, on the evening after their divorce, a couple take a realistic look back at the life they shared and imagine what might have happened if they had stayed together, »The English Lover« presents the nightmare version of the end of a relationship, in which violence that has been smouldering for years erupts.

In Peter Weiss’ boundary breaking drama, two champions of excess disillusioned with the French Revolution meet: Marat v. de Sade. A debate between Marat, the advocate of terror, and the Marquis de Sade, the libertine, about the all-important question of whether change is at all possible. And if so, at what price? And by what means? »Marat/Sade« is a spectacle of transition, of changing times and of doubt.

A UFO in the shape of a weisswurst lands in front of the Bayerische Staatskanzlei: is this a film or reality? The film maker and asphalt cowboy Klaus Lemke embarks together with a group of aliens on a high speed, madcap journey through Munich’s history in search of what the city once was and could perhaps be in future. Albert Ostermaier’s new play is an affectionate homage to the film poet Klaus Lemke, who died in 2022, and both a hymn to and reckoning with his home city of Munich.

Every Saturday you have the opportunity to discover the world behind the scenes at the Residenztheater.

Under the indifferent moon of Soho, London’s underworld attempts to arrest Mack the Knife with songs and words that are polished as sharp as his own blade. With »The Threepenny Opera« (world premiere 1928), Brecht, Hauptmann and Weill created an entirely new form of music theatre. A play about a society in which everything is reduced to its monetary value and criminals are citizens – and vice versa.  

24 hours in the Englischer Garten. Somewhere between Monopteros and the Haus der Kunst – in ten scenes and each time in pairs – DJ Ada, businessman Franzi, poet Graf, cleaner Maro and sex worker Eleonore meet. The multi-award-winning playwright Anja Hilling rethinks Arthur Schnitzler’s »Reigen« for the present. 

When Pippi Langstrumpf moves into the abandoned Villa Villekulla, a whirlwind enters the lives of Annika and Tommy. Along with her monkey Mr Nilsson and her horse Little Old Man, Pippi turns the children’s lives upside down. With her charm and humour, the remarkable pirate’s daughter makes fools of anyone who tries to keep her in check, whether they are policemen, bandits or concerned neighbours – because she’s the strongest girl in the world!

Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel »Lolita« became a bestseller, albeit a controversial one. Since its publication, it has been the subject of heated debate, with accusations of pornography and calls for a ban on publication on the one hand, and admiration for its literary finesse on the other. The author viewed his title character – who has become a dubious myth – through the eyes of her stepfather. In her successful debut novel, Lea Ruckpaul allows Dolores Haze to survive and recounts the story of years of abuse in retrospect, with the analytical insight of an adult woman who does not wish to be understood solely as a victim.

Judge Adam has a serious problem: not only does he have to cope with the severe effects of his nightly alcohol consumption, but also the sudden appearance of his superior Walter, who intends to take a close look at the administration of law in the provinces. Adam is forced to try a case publicly in court where he is obliged to investigate himself, which uses all the means at his disposal to conceal. Kleist’s disturbing comedy turns into an investigative drama about a veritable legal scandal.

The Jewish author Anna Gmeyner, rediscovered only a few years ago – she was forced into exile by the Nazis in 1933 – tells the story of the big world in miniature in Automatenbüfett. While Mrs Adam tries to keep her vending machine restaurant running, Mr Adam pursues his supposedly revolutionary economic vision, which is supposed to serve the good of all. However, with the appearance of the unknown Eva, the eternal order of the small town begins to falter.

The legendary musical »Cabaret« entices us into the dazzling world of the Kit Kat Club in the 1930s. Every night the enigmatic Sally Bowles thrills the audience with her famous song »Life is a Cabaret«, a celebration of decadence and diversity. The young American Clifford Bradshaw is caught up in this intensely sensual world. Yet, at the same time, something dark is becoming an ever-stronger presence in the daily lives of these exuberant fun-lovers.

Suddenly the phone rings and life changes from one day to the next. This was also what Simone de Beauvoir and her sister experienced when they found out that their mother was in hospital. Simone de Beauvoir describes honestly and movingly what it means to bid farewell to the person who gave you life. Following the success of »(Non)Mothers!« the actors Sibylle Canonica, Barbara Horvath and Lisa Stiegler produce the stage premiere of this personal piece of world literature.

Intrigues, conspiracies, political intrigues - Schiller's tragedy depicts the power struggle between the English Queen Elizabeth I and the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart. But what if only chance decides between power and powerlessness? Then the roles could also be »swapped«. For each performance, a draw is held to decide which of the two actresses will play the victor or the vanquished.

Once a month, you have the opportunity to creatively explore a play from our program in the »Resi Workshop«. In the two-hour workshop you will approach the respective production with text excerpts, playful exercises and improvisations.

A longtime favourite of Munich audiences, the exceptional actor Manfred Zapatka, appears as one of William Shakespeare’s great title characters: King Lear. The play is a character study of an ageing, unpredictable patriarch and tyrant. 

»Two souls dwell, oh! in my breast« – with these words Goethe’s Faust describes not only a personal drama, but an experience of modern subjectivity: the ego manifests itself as a texture of contradictory forces.  Goethe’s drama presents modern man as driven by a principle of continuous escalation – caught between self-control, consumerism and destruction. Ulrich Rasche presents these events as an interiorised chamber play. Its characters embody the forces of a conflicted consciousness; Mephisto becomes a dark shadow of the protagonist himself.

Der Schöpfer des Weltbestsellers live mit einer interaktiven Leseshow zu Gast bei der Münchner Bücherschau!

»Two souls dwell, oh! in my breast« – with these words Goethe’s Faust describes not only a personal drama, but an experience of modern subjectivity: the ego manifests itself as a texture of contradictory forces.  Goethe’s drama presents modern man as driven by a principle of continuous escalation – caught between self-control, consumerism and destruction. Ulrich Rasche presents these events as an interiorised chamber play. Its characters embody the forces of a conflicted consciousness; Mephisto becomes a dark shadow of the protagonist himself.

The fawn Bambi was not created by Walt Disney, but by the Viennese writer Felix Salten. As a passionate hunter he described the rough cycle of life from Bambi’s birth to an advanced age in his »Life Stories from the Forest« from 1922. The musician and director Schorsch Kamerun tells how every new day in the forest represents an existential challenge for the animal world with his ensemble in a colourful and dangerous revue.

The legendary musical »Cabaret« entices us into the dazzling world of the Kit Kat Club in the 1930s. Every night the enigmatic Sally Bowles thrills the audience with her famous song »Life is a Cabaret«, a celebration of decadence and diversity. The young American Clifford Bradshaw is caught up in this intensely sensual world. Yet, at the same time, something dark is becoming an ever-stronger presence in the daily lives of these exuberant fun-lovers.

Rainald Goetz, the remarkable multi award-winning author, has entrusted resident director Elsa-Sophie Jach with the world premiere of his latest theatre text. The text is a bold mix of genres: a diary and requiem interwoven with scenes from a crazy screenplay project with Helmut Dietl and Franz Xaver Kroetz, to whom Goetz has dedicated the play. And in it he also pays his respects to his native Bavaria, both to the city of Munich and the foothills of the Alps. Playful, poetic, profound, absolutely undramatic – and, of course, a work of genius.

During the global economic crisis of the 1920s, a young woman tries out self-realization and yet ends up in a restrictive marriage, confronted with misogyny and male bonding as well as the rise of National Socialism. Elsa-Sophie Jach adapts Marieluise Fleisser's only novel for the stage.

When Pippi Langstrumpf moves into the abandoned Villa Villekulla, a whirlwind enters the lives of Annika and Tommy. Along with her monkey Mr Nilsson and her horse Little Old Man, Pippi turns the children’s lives upside down. With her charm and humour, the remarkable pirate’s daughter makes fools of anyone who tries to keep her in check, whether they are policemen, bandits or concerned neighbours – because she’s the strongest girl in the world!

Ahead of the show, cultural studies scholar and Gay Guide Anian Halder takes the audience on a journey of discovery through the Munich of Freddie Mercury. The city tour combines historic sites, queer history and the themes of the production to offer a shared exploration of a multifaceted figure and his era.

The Austrian playwright Werner Schwab is regarded as a radical reviver of the folk play and a linguistic virtuoso. For his comedy »Die Präsidentinnen«, he created three incomparable female characters in Erna, Grete and Mariedl who try to defend their modest place in life with peasant cunning and a will to survive only to be tripped up by their own vainglorious delusions.  

Freddie Mercury, front man of the legendary British rock band Queen, spent a lot of time in Munich from 1979 to 1985. He lived in several apartments here, forged close friendships and recorded his first solo album. What drew him to the Isar? Love, the wild nightlife and the many meeting points of the city’s gay community? The Musicland Studios of Giorgio Moroder and their pioneering innovations in electronic music? Or did he simply want to avoid the rigid British tax laws?

When Pippi Langstrumpf moves into the abandoned Villa Villekulla, a whirlwind enters the lives of Annika and Tommy. Along with her monkey Mr Nilsson and her horse Little Old Man, Pippi turns the children’s lives upside down. With her charm and humour, the remarkable pirate’s daughter makes fools of anyone who tries to keep her in check, whether they are policemen, bandits or concerned neighbours – because she’s the strongest girl in the world!

Tessa Ensler is a successful lawyer whose supreme discipline is the defence of defendants in sexual assault cases. Then she herself is raped - by a colleague. She reports him and is now on the other side of the cross-examination - as the victim. With »Prima Facie«, Suzie Miller gives a voice to millions of women who suffer violence worldwide.

A longtime favourite of Munich audiences, the exceptional actor Manfred Zapatka, appears as one of William Shakespeare’s great title characters: King Lear. The play is a character study of an ageing, unpredictable patriarch and tyrant. 

In seinem Roman »Wolf« erzählt Saša Stanišić eine Geschichte über Freundschaft, Zugehörigkeit und Courage und stellt die Frage, was es bedeutet, anders zu sein. Kemi wird von seiner Mutter in ein Ferienlager im Wald verbannt. Seinen Schlafplatz muss er sich mit Jörg teilen, einem Außenseiter, der noch weniger dazuzugehören scheint und noch dazu von seinen Mitschüler*innen »andersiger« gemacht wird. Geplagt von Mücken, übermotivierten Betreuer*innen und fiesen Spielereien der anderen Jugendlichen versuchen die beiden, die Zeit zu überstehen. Doch dann taucht nachts auch noch der Wolf auf und Kemi wird auf die Probe gestellt: Zieht er sich weiter zurück oder findet er den Mut, sich zu wehren?

Under the indifferent moon of Soho, London’s underworld attempts to arrest Mack the Knife with songs and words that are polished as sharp as his own blade. With »The Threepenny Opera« (world premiere 1928), Brecht, Hauptmann and Weill created an entirely new form of music theatre. A play about a society in which everything is reduced to its monetary value and criminals are citizens – and vice versa.  

The fawn Bambi was not created by Walt Disney, but by the Viennese writer Felix Salten. As a passionate hunter he described the rough cycle of life from Bambi’s birth to an advanced age in his »Life Stories from the Forest« from 1922. The musician and director Schorsch Kamerun tells how every new day in the forest represents an existential challenge for the animal world with his ensemble in a colourful and dangerous revue.

Once a week, we offer play clubs for different age groups and with different themes, which are led by members of the ensemble, assistant directors and a theatre educator. This gives participants the opportunity to develop their own production together for an entire season up to the premiere, without any prior knowledge or casting.

We introduce our teams and their ideas at the kick-off meeting.

Every Saturday you have the opportunity to discover the world behind the scenes at the Residenztheater.

Judge Adam has a serious problem: not only does he have to cope with the severe effects of his nightly alcohol consumption, but also the sudden appearance of his superior Walter, who intends to take a close look at the administration of law in the provinces. Adam is forced to try a case publicly in court where he is obliged to investigate himself, which uses all the means at his disposal to conceal. Kleist’s disturbing comedy turns into an investigative drama about a veritable legal scandal.

In his book »Genius and Conscience«, published this spring, the historian Michael Wolffsohn re-examines the much-debated role of the conductor Herbert von Karajan during the Nazi era. For the Residenztheater and the Bavarian State Opera, he has adapted the material into a discursive text for three narrators, supplemented by musical excerpts and video footage.

Oedipus, the lead candidate of a new political movement, is as good as assured of election victory. But why are the circumstances of his predecessor’s fatal road traffic accident classified? And what is the fake news regarding his origins about? Oedipus starts to investigate – despite all the warnings. As in his updating of Schnitzler’s »The Doctor«, Robert Icke has radically translated a theatre classic into the present. Icke’s »Oedipus« looks behind the myth and is both a family tragedy and a political thriller.

The Austrian playwright Werner Schwab is regarded as a radical reviver of the folk play and a linguistic virtuoso. For his comedy »Die Präsidentinnen«, he created three incomparable female characters in Erna, Grete and Mariedl who try to defend their modest place in life with peasant cunning and a will to survive only to be tripped up by their own vainglorious delusions.  

In Peter Weiss’ boundary breaking drama, two champions of excess disillusioned with the French Revolution meet: Marat v. de Sade. A debate between Marat, the advocate of terror, and the Marquis de Sade, the libertine, about the all-important question of whether change is at all possible. And if so, at what price? And by what means? »Marat/Sade« is a spectacle of transition, of changing times and of doubt.