company

The bremer shakespeare company

The bremer shakespeare company was founded in the season of 1983/84 by seven actors and actresses. “A theatre for all”, which focuses on the artistic work of the author William Shakespeare and at the same time acts as a stimulus for the players to create their own productions. The ensemble sees the evening at the theatre as a joint event celebrated with the audience and relies on the imagination, on the spectator’s delight in thinking about and sympathizing with what they see or hear.

Contemporary theatre cannot be anything but the perception, formation and reflection by contemporary people who live in the world of today. Shakespeare’s work delivers the stuff from which we weave our plays. We put on scenes of the world Shakespeare sketched for us, interpret the figures Shakespeare invented and enjoy this great, substantial and creative imagination.

At the time Shakespeare’s theatre was the “institution of immorality”; the plays have no ideology, they tell of a new age, an age of discoveries, and being able to mix together the imaginary and traditional to form something completely new. To this extent he presents a utopian platform: the imaginary comes into play along with the already existent.

The lack of ideology, the high level of emotionality, the numerous changes of perspective and the brilliance of the language are like a never-ending stream, which over the centuries have mingled together in a wondrous way with our thoughts and feelings, but also our ways of telling on the stage.

Shakespeare is our precious resource which feeds the theatre with its 25 permanently employed people and drives them to seek new shores. The theatre is run by its staff. In the thirty years of its existence the company has put on 48 Shakespeare plays and almost as many productions from its own drama workshop. It is supported by funds provided by the Senator für Kultur of the city of Bremen, the Verein für Freunde und Förderer (Association of the Friends and Supporters) and numerous sponsors. A further important financial source is provided by the more than 40 tour dates in Germany each season and invitations to national and international festivals. The company is amongst the most constant and productive institutions in the cultural field with its own international festivals and co-productions, local and global cooperations, the foundation of the Theatre-School Campus am Leibnizplatz and various awards.

“[The players] are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time.” (Hamlet, II.2) .