Happy End
Closing Festival

FESTIVAL CENTRE

❤️ We open our doors for you every day from 5.00 p.m.! ❤️
In the Schiffbau: on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, in the Pfauen: from Tuesday to Saturday and on Sunday afternoons. There will be drinks and refreshments, great souvenirs to buy and the opportunity to celebrate and say goodbye together. Happy hour is from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. For memories that will get under your skin, you can get a tattoo on Thursday (at the Pfauen) or Saturday (at the Schiffbau)! Schauspielhaus Zürich forever or just temporarily.

VENUES

We mainly play at the Pfauen and the Schiffbau. Only on Friday do we take a trip to the lake together and start the weekend with you and a string concert with a picnic.

FESTIVAL PASS

Our Happy End Festival Pass is available from the webshop and at the box office for CHF 250. With this pass you can book free tickets for all events this week: online, by phone or at the box office.

EXHIBITIONS

Retrospective Zuhauspielhaus Pandemic Theatre March 2020 – June 2021
3, 5 & 8 June 2024 17:00 – 02:00, 9. June 2024 10:00 – 14:00, Schiffbau-Foyer: Free Admission

Poster-Exhibition Laurenz Brunner x Schauspielhaus Zürich
30 April – 30 June 2024, Museum für Gestaltung: Free Admission

Monday
3 June 2024

A happy ending needs an equally happy beginning, and there should be one, even if it doesn’t seem happy at first, but rather tragic. Because Leonie Böhm’s Medea* remains a tragedy, of course. But because Maja Beckmann puts her whole life into her Medea, all her love and her incomparable humour, and because Maja Beckmann is also the most charming and kindest Medea of all time, this tragic beginning will also be a happy one. When the tragedy comes to an end after just under two hours, you can pay a flying visit to the vernissage of the Zuhauspielhaus, where many of the works created during the pandemic years, from Nicolas Stemann’s Corona Passionspiele to Christopher Rüping’s Dekalog are on display; stroll through the foyer of the Schiffbau directly into the Moods Jazz Club, where a fine selection from the Ring Orchestra in a beat-heavy opening concert will be the highlight of the first day, and also its happy ending – with Legion Seven, Leo Luchini, Isa GT and Uxile, all presented by ........ Black Cracker!

Opening
Hello!
Free-beer with the intendants
17:00, Schiffbau-Foyer
Free entry

Theatre
Medea*
After Euripides, Staging: Leonie Böhm
17:30, Introduction
18:00, Schiffbau-Box

Vernissage
Retrospective Zuhauspielhaus
Pandemic Theatre March 2020 – June 2021
19:30, Schiffbau-Foyer
Free entry

Concert
Opening Concert: The Ring Orchestra Redux
Legion Seven, Leo Luchini, Isa GT und Uxile presented by Black Cracker
20:00, Moods

Tuesday
4 June 2024

The in-house directors, better known in this case as Die Acht, also want to say goodbye. On the second day of the festival, each of them will be given 60 seconds on the Pfauen stage to say their own personal (or impersonal) farewell to Zurich, the Schauspielhaus and its audience. Immediately after these eight minutes, Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert, which Trajal Harrell and the Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble have taken from Zurich to numerous cities around the world (and will continue to do so after their time in Zurich, though of course not under the name Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble), will be performed for the last time. And yet, this Köln Concert is a very special one, because for the first time since its creation, it is not over after the last note has faded. Look forward to The Zürich Concert! Terre Thaemlitz – speaker, multimedia producer, author, educator, audio remixer, DJ and owner of the label Comatonse Recordings – responds to Trajal Harrell’s Köln Concert with a piano concert that is created in the moment. In the time between the concerts, the two artists will talk to each other – in front of an audience, of course.

Farewell
One Minute Each
By and with Leonie Böhm, Alexander Giesche, Suna Gürler, Trajal Harrell, Yana Ross, Christopher Rüping, Nicolas Stemann & Wu Tsang
20:00, Pfauen

Dance
The Köln Concert
By Trajal Harrell / Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble
20:08, Pfauen

© Reto Schmid

Talk
Trajal Harrell X Terre Thaemlitz​
21:00, Pfauen

Concert
The Zürich Concert
By and with Terre Thaemlitz
22:00, Pfauen
Tickets available at the box office at 21:00

Wednesday
5 June 2024

After the festival centre opens in the foyers on Wednesday at 5 p.m. (find out when it opens in the Pfauen and when it invites you to linger and chat in the Schiffbau!), the very last performance of Alexander Giesche’s award-winning pro- duction of Max Frisch’s Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän begins at 7.30 p.m. Visu- al Poem doesn’t ring a bell? Never seen a dinosaur on stage before? Or an aeroplane? Well, last chance to see. Afterwards, director Alexander Giesche will talk to Nikolaj Schultz, student and designated successor of the recently deceased philosophical legend Bruno Latour, about art and climate change, the end of the world and hope, and whether nihilism protects or leads to ruin when the sky threa- tens to go up in flames. (If you want to go to Liebes Arschloch on Saturday, however, you will have the difficult task of deciding how to be at the Pfauen and the Schiffbau at the same time, as the genre-bending artwork Carmen also starts in the Schiffbau at 7.30 p.m, more on that later).

Keynote Nikolaj Schultz
On the Many Ways of ‘Becoming Sensible’ in the Anthropocene, or; a New Existentialism​
18:30, Pfauen
Free entry

Opera
Carmen
By Sophia Al-Maria & Andrew Yee after the opera by George Bizet, Staging: Moved by the Motion
19:30, Schiffbau-Halle

Visual Poem
Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän
After Max Frisch, Staging: Alexander Giesche
19:00, Introduction
19:30, Pfauen

© Eike Walkenhorst

Talk
Alexander Giesche x Nikolaj Schultz
21:30, Pfauen

Thursday
6 June 2024

With three days behind us and three days to go, a veritable world star of the digital technological future will be joining us at the Pfauen on the Thursday of the Equinox. James Bridle will talk about the need for disruption, the courage to be honest, and the darkness of the new age. Afterwards, the circle continues, both in thought and in the universe, where the Earth revolves around the sun every day. Co-artistic director Nicolas Stemann’s production Sonne, los jetzt! by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek extends Bridle’s cosmic-digital reflections into the Zurich auditorium and revolves around the state of things in the Anthropocene with earthly theatrical means. For this last performance on Earth, Nicolas Stemann will extend the sun into the night and, together with Elfriede Jelinek and other accomplices of humanity, set a musical beacon (also) at the apocalyptic jam session Sonne Extended – Das Ende.

Online-Keynote
James Bridle
Discussion afterwards
19:00, Pfauen
Free entry

Theatre
Sonne, los jetzt!
By Elfriede Jelinek, Staging: Nicolas Stemann
20:00, Introduction
20:30, Pfauen

© Philip Frowein

Concert
Sonne Extended – The End
By and with Elfriede Jelinek, Nicolas Stemann, Thomas Kürstner, Sebastian Vogel & Ensemble
23:00, Pfauen

Friday
7 June 2024

At the beginning of the weekend and as the happy ending draws to a close, di- rector Leonie Böhm will bring her on the encounter based work on the myth of “Parzifal” to the Pfauen. The stars of the ensemble and their guests, from Kim de l’Horizon to Theaterjahr, who have been working together for many months on the unclosable wound of the King of the Holy Grail, will gather at the Pfauen for a collective healing of the wound. They will be accompanied by drumming legend Matze Pröllochs. After a refreshing drink in the festival centre, the subsequent book launch sets the mood for the next highlight and reveals more about the human and theatrical language of director Christopher Rüping. This will be followed by his award-winning production Gier, which descends deep into the catacombs of human consciousness behind the surface of appearances – and ascends again with actress Wiebke Mollenhauer to finally drown despair in Lake Zurich. That’s where we need to go, too, provided we pack our swimming trunks and gather for a nocturnal picnic on the Blatterwiese, accompanied by the string trio from Gier.

Theatre
Parzival ff - das Finale
After Wolfram von Eschenbach, Staging: Leonie Böhm
17:00, Pfauen

Book-Launch with the Alexander Verlag Berlin
Nahaufnahme: Christopher Rüping
18:30, Pfauen-Kammer
Free entry

Theatre
Gier
By Sarah Kane, Staging: Christopher Rüping
19:00, Introduction
19:30, Pfauen

Foto: Orpheas Emirzas

Concert & Picnic
Pack die Badehose ein
21:30, Blatterwiese beim Chinapavillon

Saturday
8 June 2024

To ensure that children and their companions get the most out of the farewell weekend as well, they can go to the Pfauen in the morning to see Little Red Riding Hood dance with the Wolf in Nicolas Stemann’s iconic play, Schneewittchen Beauty Queen – those who come in fancy dress will win an apple and can dance with the Evil Queen after the show! So Saturday is off to a good start, bring on the spinach smoothies and coffinated drinks – now it’s time to really get going! At 7 p.m., star feminist and fearless campaigner for fair urban policy Anna Rosenwasser will give a talk for the overwhelmed. Afterwards, you can just stay seated, because in Yana Ross’ acclaimed production, Virginie Despentes’ Liebes Arschloch sends (not only) the Zurich patriarchy to the sidelines for good. Parallel to Liebes Arschloch, the opera-hybrid Carmen by Moved by the Motion bids farewell to Zurich and five years of convergence between art, resistance and theatre in the Schiffbau-Halle (don’t forget to drop by the Theaterjahr’s Offene Bühne at the Matchbox after Carmen to celebrate your own performative talents!).

Finally, at a late hour but not late enough – drum roll fanfare hard beat – the doors of the Box finally open and the House of Wokeness Party invites you into the night, proudly presenting and forever honoring the incredibly knowledgeable and luckily immortal TEACHES OF PEACHES!!!! Never stop dancing.

Costume rental
Family Dress Up
Best of Fundus of the last 5 years
from 10:00, Pfauen-Foyer
Free entry

Theatre
Schneewittchen Beauty Queen
After the Gebrüder Grimm, Staging: Nicolas Stemann
for people from 6 to 166
11:00, Pfauen

Yummi
Pizza-Plausch
Margherita per tutti*e after the show
13:00, Pfauen-Foyer

Keynote Anna Rosenwasser
Speech for the overwhelmed by and with Anna Rosenwasser
19:00, Pfauen
Free entry

Theatre
Liebes Arschloch
Von Virginie Despentes, Inszenierung: Yana Ross
19:30, Introduction
20:00, Pfauen

© Gina Folly

Warm up for the time afterwards or a ritual against the discontent
How to Say Goodbye
By and with former ensemble members Thelma Buabeng, Sachiko Hara & Henni Jörissen as well as by and with Kim de l'Horizon
18:00 & 22:30, Schiffbau-Foyer
Free entry

Opera
Carmen
By Sophia Al-Maria & Andrew Yee after the opera by George Bizet, Staging: Moved by the Motion
19:00, Introduction
19:30, Schiffbau-Halle

© Inès Manai

Open Mic
Offene Bühne
Theaterjahr 23/24
20:00, Schiffbau-Matchbox
Free entry

Party
House of Wokeness
Paolo Pilat, AKUAKU (Angie Addo) & more plus Special Guest...: Peaches!
23:00, Schiffbau-Box
Free entry

Sunday
9 June 2024

After there has been no chance of sleep in the previous 24 hours, a refreshing brunch will be served in the Schiffbau foyer on Sunday morning to invigorate your limbs and recharge your batteries for the grand finale. You can also bid on some of the best costumes of recent years – the Prince, who once walked the world as a frog, is offering his old green skin, and the rich kids of the Gucci Gang are giving us their fancy outfits from last season. Newly dressed, we then head to the Pfauen to be there when young people take over the Pfauen with jetzt, jetzt, jetzt by director Suna Gürler, and together with them we not only experience how urgent theatre can be, but can also be there when they look to the future with scepticism but determination.

That’s all Folks. Well, almost...

After the Happy End, we invite you to aftercare in the Schiffbau garden with the summer open air cinema – relax, enjoy and look up to the sky (or the screen)!

Take care and: Bye Zurich.

Brunch
Happy End
12:00, Schiffbau-Foyer
Free entry

Costume and props auction
Alles muss raus Deluxe
13:00, Schiffbau-Foyer
Free entry

Theatre
jetzt, jetzt, jetzt
By Yunus Ersoy, Suna Gürler, Lucien Haug, Alina Immoos & Ensemble, Staging: Suna Gürler
15:30, Introduction
16:00, Pfauen

© Zoé Aubry