Theater landscapes

When it opened in 1972, the concrete building was considered one of the most modern and largest new theater buildings in the country.
Esther Schweins visits the three-section theater in the science city of Darmstadt, meets artistic director John Dew and introduces the history of the theater.
The former royal seat of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt has a long history of opera and drama.
As early as 1711, the first opera was performed in a riding hall built for the purpose.

Archive footage, e.g. with Günter Strack in Ernst Elias Niebergall's local farce "Der Datterich" in Darmstadt dialect, interviews with the former theater critic Günther Rühle, former director Günther Beelitz and Georg Büchner Prize winner Wilhelm Genazino provide insights into the history of the theater and the city of Darmstadt.
It also explains what the "Darmstadt style" is and why the former state theater and its drama were among the leading stages in the country for ten years in the 1950s.