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The Swiss theatre landscape is quite astounding and offers a myriad of entertainment for every taste. A small country, Switzerland surprises with the quantity and quality of all it has to offer. As you might have guessed, the country also has a long and rich theatre tradition. Basel, Bern, Geneva, and Zurich all have institutions with a name extending far beyond their boundaries.
The large theatres, with or without orchestras and or ballet ensembles, take up the lion’s share of their respective cities’ arts budgets.
But there are also countless small theatres. And many independent venues which are hard to find unless you know some locals who can show you all the hidden spots.
Many of the smaller venues specialize in classical repertory just as much as in comedy, or fringe productions.
Most plays and productions are regionally or linguistically rooted. Friedrich Duerrenmatt was one of the first who transcended these restrictions to achieve world renown as a dramatist.
Nowadays, especially in the larger cities Basel, Bern, Geneva, and Zurich, there is also a large expat community. Especially the English-speaking percentile in all these cities is continuously growing.
So, you might well find English-speaking theatres as well. Or, more and more frequently, stage productions will be subtitled for its diverse, international audience.
In the dark days of the Nazi period in Germany, Zurich’s Schauspielhaus was an important centre for theatre where many German refugee writers, directors, and actors performed or staged productions.
The country’s two most outstanding post-war dramatists, Max Frisch and Friedrich Duerrenmatt first staged their plays at the Schauspielhaus. Contemporary playwrights such as Maja Beutler, Thomas Huerlimann, and Matthias Zschokke have also staged works there.
In Zurich, the Odeon Bar was even the birthplace of the DaDa movement. And the small, independent Cabaret Voltaire housed many a revolutionary play, Dada, or other performance throughout its long existence since 1916.
In French-speaking Switzerland, the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne is an integrated part of the professional theatre system of France. Thus, the theatre co-produces the works of major municipal theatres such as the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.
In Geneva, the large Comédie de Geneve as well as the smaller Théâtre Le Poche and the Théâtre Forum Meyrin explicitly focus on contemporary authors.
There are of course also many independent theatre venues and troupes in Switzerland’s Italian- and Romansh-speaking cities and towns. But those towns are in general too small to have major municipal theatres.
The Swiss theatre landscape also offers an abundance of open-air productions despite the often-rebellious weather.
As I have witnessed myself, the Swiss population refuses to be deterred from enjoying a performance outdoors by bad weather.
There are open-air stages for productions of William Tell in Interlaken, and for the Fete des Vignerons in Vevey.
Another staging of the William Tell story is held every four years in Altdorf, in Uri, Tell’s historical homeland.
Calderon’s baroque masterpiece Theatre of the World is staged at regular intervals in Einsiedeln, Switzerland’s best-known pilgrimage site.
For the production in 2000, Thomas Huerlimann was commissioned to rewrite the play to be able to surprise the audience with a more contemporary production.
In the Romansh-language area, the Cumpagnia da Teater Laax, an amateur troupe, produces an open-air play every ten years involving more or less the entire village.
In 2009, a lavish production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (translated by the Romansh writer Leo Tuor) was created under the direction of internationally renowned actor Bruno Cathomas, who is himself from Laax.
Also in the Romansh area, the Origen Festival at the castle of Riom, directed by Giovanni Netzer, features religious drama. In 2010, a play was put on by the group at the Julier Pass in the middle of the Alps.
And let’s not forget the many famous, international music and film festivals which are held annually in beautiful locations in Switzerland.
For example, the Locarno Film Festival, the Zurich Film Festival, the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Paleo Festival de Nyon, and the International Jazz Festival Bern.
Opera and dance are also well represented in the major Swiss cultural centres. Zurich, Geneva, and Lausanne all have beautiful opera houses.
There are professional ballet ensembles in all of these cities as well as in Basel. With the Zurich Ballet and Lausanne’s Béjart Ballet among the most well-known internationally.
There are, of course, also many modern dance troupes in all larger cities.
Bains des Paquis – Social and Cultural Haven in Geneva
Guilherme Botelho – Dance and the Quest for Meaning
Liam Klenk was born in Central Europe and has since lived on four continents. Liam has always been engaged in creative pursuits, ranging from photography and graphic design, to writing short stories and poetry, to working in theatre and shows. In 2016, Liam published his first book and memoir, 'Paralian'.
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