Theater im Keller (Bonn)

Theater im Keller stands in Bonn’s Duisdorf district as an amateur theatre with its own basement stage. It began in the late 1960s as a Volkshochschule course before moving in 1974 to a permanent cellar space at the local vocational college. Over the years the theatre built a varied programme of contemporary plays, children’s shows, cabaret and readings on two small stages. Special seasons like ‘Fremde Länder, fremde Sitten’ teamed up with Bonn’s embassies while ‘Cabaret à la carte’ welcomed guest stars such as Bastian Pastewka and Bernhard Hoëcker. The theatre is run by a non-profit association of volunteers who act, direct, build sets and manage the lights. In 2005 it left municipal funding and now lives on ticket sales, membership fees and donations. Each season it mounts several productions and hosts around forty performances, alternating with guest artists’ evenings. One of its longest-running in-house shows, ‘Bewegte Zeiten – eine deutsche Jahrhundertrevue’, ran for twenty years until pausing in 2020 because of the pandemic. Visitors find a cosy cellar theatre with two stages tucked beneath the vocational college. The space feels intimate, with close seating and a warm atmosphere created by the volunteer company. Programme leaflets list plays, cabarets and readings that change every few weeks. The foyer often holds small displays about the current production or the theatre’s history.