Arrived in Halle: Volksbühne Kaulenberg celebrates its fifth anniversary

Jonas Schütte has every reason to celebrate. The actor runs a free stage in Halle and is looking forward to three anniversaries: he has been on stage as an actor for 30 years, exactly 15 years ago he decided to move to Halle and five years ago he opened his own theater, the Volksbühne Kaulenberg in the Saalestadt.

The venue is a “venue for professional close-up art,” as can be read on the homepage. There are trained professionals on stage. In addition to theatre, visual arts, music, digital and literature are offered. With his Volksbühne, Schütte claims to participate in social discourses with visual arguments. This is a necessary cultural measure.

The director of the Volksbühne Kaulenberg stands behind the counter of his theater café and uses the coffee machine. The reason why he stayed in Halle after his engagement at the New Theater is simple, says Schütte: “I stayed in Halle because it is geographically well located for Germany.” This was very practical, especially during his time as a freelance actor .

But the 41-year-old didn’t just want to mess around. He was looking for a permanent home and founded the Volksbühne Kaulenberg in a small alley not far from the New Theater. His home, the red house, has passed through many hands and was a pub, disco and nightclub. In addition to plays and dance workshops, Schütte now offers its audience a café, game evenings, readings and much more.

The Volksbühne Kaulenberg is a meeting place. But also a place where theater is made differently. “We do what that.” New theater “Not taken into account, but we find it important for urban society and thus establish it here,” explains Schütte.

“A few elements of it are relying a lot on the audience’s imagination and stimulating it, which helps to completely forget everyday life,” says the stage manager. In the Volksbühne Kaulenberg you could hear stories from old times told and notice how current they are.

This is exactly how Jonas Schütte plays him in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. In the program booklet he is pictured with a clown nose for the play Hamlet and I. The evening says a lot about our origins, our souls and our social discussions, he says. For him, “Hamlet” is a guide against populism.

Jonas Schütte, who took his first steps on stage in Ravensburg with Ingrid Lausund, the author behind the cult series “Tatortreiniger”, is also a big fan of reduction, and the clown figure reappears everywhere he goes. He candidly talks about his first steps on stage as part of a clown workshop. Then he was given the task of climbing through a chair and finding himself on the other side in a stalactite cave.

This experience still moves him today, because he suddenly finds himself standing in a stalactite cave, even though there was nothing there. The course leader recognized his talent and transferred him to the theater to Ingrid Lausund, with whom he worked on a total of three projects.

The final rehearsals for the anniversary piece “The Neverending Story” are currently underway. Anyone who remembers a lavishly equipped film will get by with just three characters, and there are no props – imagination is required. According to Schütte, behind this is the concept of physical theater, which works with elements from pantomime and dance: “We don’t need a real revolver because you can also stick out your index finger and say ‘Bang’. Everyone in the audience knows it’s a revolver.”

fur Matthias Brenner “The Neverending Story” is already the second production with Jonas Schütte. He appreciated his work and the addition to the theatrical offering, especially within walking distance New theaters. World literature is performed here and classical music is cultivated as well as a beautiful music program. Art and culture in the best sense.

Jonas Schütte’s Volksbühne is just five years old. Increasing visitor numbers show that the stage is being accepted more and more by the audience.