Summer is not showing its sunniest side at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon, because in addition to the usual open-air and stadium concerts, the theater world also offers a lot in the open air. The venue and program are diverse: Whether it’s Shakespeare in the fountain courtyard, theater plays in the Glyptothek or plays in the inner courtyard of Nymphenburg Palace – there should be something for everyone. To make it easier for you to find your way through the thicket of the offer, the editors have selected and compiled a number of open-air options.
Summer Theater in the English Garden
Classic comedy in the amphitheater – that’s what viewers have been waiting for at the Munich Summer Theater in the English Garden since 1990.
(Photo: Munich Summer Theater)
The Munich summer theater has its very own concept: every summer since 1990, a free troupe of young actors and musicians has performed a play in the amphitheater in the English Garden – on numerous dates over several weeks. From George Bernhard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” to Heinrich Kleist’s “The Broken Jug” to William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Room” there has been a lot here. The only restriction when choosing a program: it always has to be classic comedy. The performances are free of charge and are financed by a support association and donations.
On the program this year is Oscar Wilde’s “Bunbury, or the Importance of Being Serious,” a virtuoso comedy of mistaken identity full of wit and absurd turns – and one of Wilde’s most successful plays. It will be played from July 6th to 29th on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, always from 9 p.m., in a magical nocturnal ambience. The Mohr villa at Situlistraße 73 is the “rain alternative quarters”. The annual autumn season with six further performances in September also takes place there.
Incidentally, the German translation of “Bunbury” comes from Ulrike Dissmann, the head of the project. She promises a German version that “strikes the difficult balance between ‘as precise as possible’ and ‘as freely as necessary’, without it sounding ‘translated’ somewhere”. Dissmann is a director and playwright herself, founded the summer theater 30 years ago and has been running it with great success ever since: it started small, but the event now has thousands of visitors every year. In 2018, Dissmann was awarded the “Munich shines” medal for this. Luke Heinser
Munich summer theater, 6.-29. July, Thursday to Saturday, at 9 p.m., amphitheater in the English Garden, free of charge, www.muenchner-sommertheater.de
Theater plays in the Glyptothek
Since 1991, theater has been performed in the inner courtyard of the Glyptothek.
(Photo: Volker Derlath)
Everything as always and yet completely different is the name of the game this year in the courtyard of the Glyptothek. Fans of the event initiated by Beles Adam and Gunnar Petersen, which has been boasting the most beautiful theater location in the city every summer since 1991, know Sven Schöcker not only as an actor. Together with the busy director Alex Novak, he will in future direct the fortunes of the summer theater. His friends can look forward to an early expansion of the program – both spatially and seasonally – but first of all, the core piece is now pulsating: On Saturday, July 8, with “Prometheus in Fesseln”, a tragedy with themes such as guilt and forgiveness juggles as if psychoanalysis was already old hat to the ancient Greeks. Schöcker worked on the opening night with three actors and the multi-instrumentalist Ardhi Engel.
In Euripides’ “Iphigenia in Aulis” (première on July 15), Novak dealt with Greek antiquity for only the second time. And right away he was confronted with the current question of how far one is willing to go to win a war. Tomma Galonska plays the evening as a solo, accompanied by Nathanael Turban on violin. More philosophical, more inclusive, “testing new forms of theatrical expression,” the newcomers want to continue the legacy of Petersen and Adam, while also opening up to younger generations. This can now be checked, as has always been the case with bread and wine – and with an anxious eye on the weather. (Weather check daily from 5 p.m. and everything else on https://theaterspieleglyptothek.cargo.site. Sabine Luminous
Theater games GlyptothekSat., July 8 to September 16, daily at 8 p.m., admission: 7 p.m., on July 7 there is a pre-opening to get to know each other
“Romeo and Juliet” in the fountain courtyard
Have been courting each other for 400 years: Romeo and Juliet – here in the English-language production of the American Drama Group Europe, to be seen this year in the fountain courtyard of the Residenz.
(Photo: Alexander Bornschlegl/4doors/American Drama Group Europe)
The world will probably never get enough of Shakespeare’s brilliant love drama. The tragic story of two young lovers who are not allowed to have each other has kept viewers spellbound since its first performance more than 400 years ago – whether as a theatre, musical, ballet or film (Leonardo di Caprio sends his regards).
As theater in English, you can experience the stage hit on Monday, July 10, in the fountain courtyard of the Residenz. The setting is also traditional. And beautiful, like the heartbreaking play that “The American Drama Group Europe” promises to perform in a classic manner, focused on Shakespearean essence. The international theater group based in Munich was founded there in 1978 by the American Grantly Marshall, consists of actors from New York, London and Paris, and is dedicated to the performance of “high-quality theater in as many countries around the world as possible”. Luke Heinser
“Romeo and Juliet”, Monday, July 10, 7.30 p.m., Brunnenhof, Residenzstraße 1, information and tickets are available at www.muenchenticket.de
“Othello” in the Theatron in Westpark
The Entity Theater is showing Shakespeare’s “Othello” in the West Park, English is spoken on stage.
(Photo: Conny Loder)
How about a British summer evening? A classic English theater of twists and turns, enjoyed al fresco from a lavishly laden picnic blanket. That’s not a problem in Munich, because the resident Entity Theater eV is putting on a Shakespeare performance in Westpark for the tenth year in a row. To mark the anniversary, the theater is presenting a traditional production of “Othello” in English. In the tragedy, Shakespeare explores a very human issue: the general Othello is convinced by his vengeful officer that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him. The result is raging jealousy and deadly misunderstandings. Fiona Rachel Fischer
Entity Theatre: OthelloJuly 7th to 9th, 14th to 16th and July 21st to 23rd, at 7 p.m., amphitheater in Westpark, free admission
Nymphenburg Palace Summer Festival
Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is an annual box-office hit at the Nymphenburg Palace Summer Festival.
(Photo: Bernt Haberland/Ensemble Persona)
In terms of splendor, the inner courtyard of Nymphenburg Palace competes with the fountain courtyard. Five productions can be seen in front of the historic royal backdrop as part of the annual summer festival from July 21 to August 20. On the one hand there is a new production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt”. Here the well-known puppeteer Suse Wächter has her fingers in the pie and brings the fairytale world of the material to life. As the second new production, the organizers included something for the little ones in the program for the first time in the seven-year history of the festival: With “The Secret Garden” they dare to take on the great children’s book classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett. If you don’t dare to try anything new as you get older, you can also watch one of the tried and tested successful productions “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Around the World in 80 Days” or “The God of Carnage”. The theater group behind the productions is the “Ensemble Persona”. Based in Munich, the professional ensemble consists of freelance theater artists and prides itself on “outstanding treatment of language” and “unpretentious acting”. Luke Heinser
Nymphenburg Palace Summer Festival, Fri., July 21 to Sun., August 20, 8 p.m., “The Secret Garden” 3.30 p.m., inner courtyard of the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace, Nymphenburg Palace 1, www.schloss-festspiele.de