Thalia Theater

The Thalia Theater is one of Germany’s oldest theatres and one of the three state theatres in Hamburg. It was founded by Chérie Maurice in November 1843 and is now running its 167th season. With its start Joachim Lux took over the Thalia as artistic director.

The house has always been renowned for its excellent ensemble which comprises about 40 permanent actors starring in around 20 repertory productions which alternate daily or in short runs. In the main, 1000 seat venue there are usually ten premieres each season with an additional nine presented on the studio stage, which lies on Gaußstraße in the burgeoning alternative city-district of Altona. This smaller venue has two separate stages: one with up to 200 seats and one with 80 seats which is located in a complex of buildings housing also rehearsal stages.

The Thalia’s repertory is made up of old and new classics, including Shakespeare, Schiller, Lessing, Gorki, Ibsen, Sophokles, Camus as well as contemporary authors like Elfriede Jelinek and Ilija Trojanow. Working alongside Luk Perceval as director-in-residence are established directors like Dimiter Gotscheff, Nicolas Stemann or Jan Bosse as well as young, talented newcomers like Jette Steckel or Christiane Pohle.
The Thalia Theater regularly receives invitations to national and international festivals like the “Berliner Theatertreffen”, the “Mühlheimer Theatertage” and the “Wiener Festwochen”. In addition, the Luk Perceval’s “The Truth about THE KENNEDYS”, which had its world premiere in the beginning of this season, is invited to the “Budapester Frühlingsfestival” and the “Malta Festival” in Posen, Poland.
Besides these artistic credits, the Thalia has been repeatedly awarded ‘Theatre of the Year’ by the jurors of Germany’s leading professional journal in theatre criticism Theater Heute.

Thalia Theater productions of the last ten years have had guest performances throughout Europe, and toured internationally to New York, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Bogotá.

All plays are presented in German. For repertoire and ticket booking please change to our German website by clicking on the German flag at the top of the page.