Hanover’s artistic director Sonja Anders on her move to Hamburg
Congratulations, Ms. Anders, you will be director of the Hamburg Thalia Theater in 2025. Is this a dream come true for you?
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To be honest, I haven’t thought much about going to the Thalia Theater until now. Now, of course, I’m looking forward to a new position with new creative power at a house that I already know well – and that I’ve also learned to love during my time as a dramaturge there.
You will then be in charge of a house with a great tradition. Your predecessors at the Thalia Theater are directors such as Boy Gobert, Peter Striebeck, Jürgen Flimm, Ulrich Khuon and Joachim Lux. Do you feel respect for the task?
Yes. It is an important house among German-language theaters and Joachim Lux ran it very politically and very powerfully. At the same time, I also know that the theater I represent fits in well with the city. I’m sure that I will succeed in filling the house with my ideas and ideas about a theater that is relevant today.
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“A theater that also appears open and inviting”
You once said the remarkable sentence “Our houses are scary” in an interview. It was about the long bourgeois tradition of the houses, about education that IS required and about belonging to a certain class. Isn’t the Thalia Theater much more frightening than the friendly Hanover Theater?
Oh well. The Thalia Theater is quite well proportioned. I experienced it as a stage where you can perform very close to the audience. It doesn’t have such a magnificent architecture as the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, it is more a bourgeois than a feudal house, a theater that also seems open and welcoming.
But the Hamburg audience can be very special.
Recently, for reasons of inconspicuousness, I tended to go to repertory performances and got to know an audience that wasn’t all that special. It is a very mixed audience. The diversity here can certainly increase.
In Hanover, the diversity of the audience and the ensemble was always very important to them. Was that a topic that YOU used to convince the assessment committee?
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That’s not unique to me. All of my colleagues who were shortlisted emphasized the importance of diversity in theatre.
“It came sooner than expected”
How did you manage to convince the selection committee?
On the one hand with leadership quality, on the other hand with a certain perseverance in representing socio-political issues. Productions in Hanover such as “The Doctor” or “The Legacy” are joyful political works that people long for. Having works like this in the program certainly didn’t hurt. Maybe it also helped that I have a pretty good feel for pieces that draw audiences without being immediately pleasing.
Success story: Scene from “The Doctor” with Johanna Bantzer in the Hanover Playhouse.
© Source: Kerstin Schomburg
Doesn’t saying goodbye to Hanover make you a little sad?
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Oh yes. In total. I really like the crowd here, I like the house here and everyone who works in it. But it was always clear to me that I would change again. That came earlier than expected, but I’m looking forward to designing a one-line house to be self-sufficient. But first of all, I still have a lot planned for Hannover for the next two and a half years. We are currently working on the game plan for the coming season and are looking forward to many exciting projects.
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You were in a good position to make the move. Six months ago, your contract in Hanover was extended until 2029.
These changes are customary in the industry, and it was also openly discussed in the contract negotiations with politicians.
Is there anything big you are planning for the Thalia Theater?
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I will definitely do a big opening festival and also leave the theater for it. This participatory interaction with the audience has always been important to me in Hanover.