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One month before the start of the season: Brothers Grimm Festival Hanau has already sold 50,000 tickets. “Little table, cover yourself!” premieres on May 8th.
Hanau – The Brothers Grimm Festival Hanau is starting its 42nd season with a tailwind. One month before the start, more than 50,000 tickets were soldaround five percent more than in the previous year. The city of Hanau announced this in a press release. After the record year of 2025, the upward trend of the Hanau Festival continues. Individual weekend performances and selected theater days are already over 80 percent full.
50,000 tickets sold: Brothers Grimm Festival starts on May 8th
“The festival belongs to Hanau like the Brothers Grimm themselves. If so many tickets have been sold weeks before the start, it shows how much people missed this special atmosphere in the amphitheater over the winter and how great the anticipation is for this special lightness,” explains Mayor Claus Kaminsky (SPD). Director Frank-Lorenz Engel is also optimistic about the coming season: “The great response in advance shows that we are bringing the right topics to the stage at the right time with our program. We want to inspire people of all ages with our productions and at the same time provide new artistic impulses. The fact that this has been received so positively is a great motivation for the entire team.”
The theme of “vanity” runs through all five productions of the 42nd Spoelzeit and manifests itself as personal tragedy, political satire and artistic envy. The event begins on Friday, May 8th with the world premiere of the musical “Little Table, Deck Yourself!”, a musical adventure with a live band for young and old. On Mother's Day, Sunday, May 10th, two performances are on the program and offer a special opportunity for family outings. “Snow White” celebrates its premiere on Saturday, May 16th: Jan Radermacher and Timo Riegelsberger are restaging the well-known fairy tale, with the focus on the vain queen who does everything in her power to remain the most beautiful.
“The Emperor's New Clothes” (premiere Saturday, May 30th) is a comedy that exposes vanity as political satire: self-deception and maintaining power at the expense of the truth. On Saturday, June 13th, Peter Shaffer's “Amadeus” is the clash between genius and mediocrity, embodied in Mozart and the envious Salieri. The premiere on Thursday, June 25th will be “The Heart of a Boxer” by Lutz Hübner, which will be shown in the Walloon Ruin as part of the “Young Talents” series. The story of a man who left vanity behind.
Colorful supporting program with readings, lectures and cabaret
The supporting program offers readings, lectures and cabaret. Children's book author Susanne Glanzner will read from her new work “Summer of Magical Wings” in the Orangery on Sunday, June 28th. On Monday, July 6th, Prof. Dr. Holger Ehrhardt in Philippsruhe Castle gave exciting background information on the fairy tale productions in his lecture “Insights behind the thorn hedge”. The traditional Open Stage charity gala will also take place in the amphitheater on July 6th. On Friday, July 17th, the cabaret evening “I understand what you don’t say” with Judith Jakob and Melanie Haupt will follow in the Orangery. Also new to the program is a festival quiz, which will be held in the amphitheater on Monday, July 27th, the statement continues.
The festival offers numerous opportunities to take a look behind the scenes. Even before the official start, on Tuesday, April 28th, the free format “Glimpses of the rehearsal stage” in the Kulturforum Hanau (Freiheitsplatz) allows rehearsal excerpts of all pieces. Tours behind the scenes on Sunday, May 24th and June 7th and 27th offer additional perspectives on theater operations. This is supplemented by the popular interview series “Ask…” with dramaturg Prof. Dr. Jeroen Coppens, who invites you to an open exchange with the ensemble and set designers on three dates in the Stadthof Hanau.
The 42nd season of the Brothers Grimm Festival runs from May 8th to July 31st in the Hanau Amphitheater and other venues in the city. Tickets and further information are available at festspiele-hanau.de or by telephone at 069 13 40 400.
