A pack of dogs bred to fight is running about in the pit of the theater. The audience stands on the stage, lured by the promise of singing pit bull terriers. Cut to another evening, when spectators even have the option of spending the whole night in the theater. Yet another evening finds the building deserted: the players have migrated to private apartments around Berlin. The Hebbel am Ufer, as we can see, does things differently.

The three-theater ensemble known as Hebbel am Ufer (HAU), which groups together the Hebbel-Theater (HAU 1), Theater am Halleschen Ufer (HAU 2) and the small Theater am Ufer (HAU 3) has an aversion to “art shit”—that is to say, to conventional theater, a category in which we also places the Volksbühne.

The HAU prefers to collide with what they call “reality shit”. The theater was propelled into experimental terrain far removed from the world of traditional drama.