Theater an der Marschnerstraße

The ensembles of the Theater an der Marschnerstrasse are showing excerpts from the first plays of the 2026/27 season: The Hound of the Baskervilles - Crime play by Thomas Birkmeir Sophie - Drama by Roos Ouvehand Much Ado About Nothing - Comedy by William Shakespeare Dracula - Drama by Johannes Kaetzler and the Hamburg Players-Improv - in English

a comedy by William ShakespeareClaudio, Benedick and Don Pedro return from war and visit an old friend in Messina. Romance is in the air. Claudio, successful as a soldier, rather insecure as a man, woos the modest Hero. But Don Pedro's half-brother plots deception, slander, and romantic torment.Meanwhile, the other side earnestly tries to set up Beatrice and Benedick. A seemingly unattainable goal, for the two convinced singles leave no doubt about their mutual antipathy with sharp verbal sparring. For better or for worse, eavesdropping occurs, they are deliberately misinformed, and misunderstood. Hopefully, in the end, only much ado about nothing remains.

A political scandal hanging by a thread: When the truth gets 'out of control'. What does an honorable minister of state do when a planned love affair with the opposition's secretary comes to a sudden and, above all, lifeless end? For Richard Hill, a nightmare begins in a luxurious suite of the Westminster Hotel, threatening to drag his political career and private life into the abyss. Instead of a passionate encounter, the mismatched couple is met with a tangible surprise: a supposed burglar is stuck lifelessly in the suite's defective sliding window. Calling the police is not an option for the minister, as the secretary's presence would trigger a scandal that no government could survive. In this moral dead end, Richard's loyal but chronically overwhelmed secretary George West proves to be the last, albeit most unstable, lifeboat. George is unceremoniously appointed crisis manager and must henceforth take on roles for which he possesses neither the talent nor the nerves. What follows is a masterfully constructed escalation: To cover up the dead man – who also proves to be surprisingly mobile – and the affair, a web of lies is woven so complex that the protagonists soon lose track themselves.

At the age of eight, Sophie makes future plans in her bedroom with her friend Daniel: definitely no kids, but at least five dogs! And eighty years later, back in that room, Sophie dreams of her mother, her father, and her son. And of Daniel, who sits down next to her and holds her hand. In between lies a whole life – and a family story. The series of images that portrays a life in this room through twelve stations sometimes seems trivial, sometimes funny, and sometimes painful. It repeatedly tells of the love between people, which is sometimes not enough and at other times so strong that it can uplift a life. "Sophie" is an extraordinary play because it depicts an entirely ordinary life.