Theater landscapes

In 1966, the premiere of Peter Handke's "Publikumsbeschimpfung" by the then head director Claus Peymann led to tumultuous riots.
Audience members who had been verbally attacked by actors made their displeasure loudly known and climbed onto the stage, where violence broke out.
New models were also tried out in the performance structure, with a co-determination concept finding its way into the theater for the first time in the early 1970s.
But here, too, politics intervened.
A committee of inquiry investigated the question of whether Marxist cadres were being trained at the TAT.
In 1974/75, Reiner Maria Fassbinder directed the TAT for a year, but failed due to financial and artistic disputes.
The controversy surrounding his play "Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod" (The Garbage, the City and Death) led to accusations of anti-Semitism.
In 1978, the TAT was to be closed for the first time and the "socialist political ensemble" was to receive a severance payment.

However, a new beginning was made in 1980 and from 1985 - under the direction of Tom Stromberg - the TAT became a venue for independent experimental theater groups and international guest performances.
In 1999, choreographer William Forsythe took over as artistic director and Tom Kühnel and Robert Schuster as drama directors.

The TAT Frankfurt was finally closed in 2004 following a decision by Frankfurt's city treasurers, and the drama department was discontinued at the end of 2003.
This means the closure of a theater that not only produced sensational and pioneering theater events, but was also a stage for the international theater avant-garde.
However, the TAT's venue, the Bockenheimer Depot, will be retained by the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt and will be used for ballets and new projects.