Monbijou Theater

The Monbijou Theatre is an open-air theatre in the namesake Monbijoupark in Berlin-Mitte. The wooden amphitheatre is erected every summer on the roof of a former World War II bunker and forms the backdrop for summer theatre spectacles.

The Monbijou Theatre ensemble was founded in 1994 as the "Hexenkessel Hoftheater" in Schönhauser Allee. The independent ensemble made a name for itself through its popular theatre productions with improvisational elements. In 2007, the troupe performed the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales for the first time in two wooden huts on the roof of the bunker in Monbijoupark. In the summer of 2008, the company moved to the Spree and the Amphitheatre.

In 2015, the ensemble split up: some moved to the Pfefferberg Theatre as the "Hexenberg Ensemble", while the others remained in Monbijoupark. In 2018, the Mitte district withdrew the permit for seasonal performances. In the summer of 2021, after the efforts of the association Zwei Drittel e.V., in which the theatre management has organised itself collectively, the theatre was allowed to resume operations. Since then, popular theatre à la Goethe, Shakespeare and Molière with sometimes crude puns and direct audience appeal has been on the programme again. Regular guests are also the improvisation theatre group Theatersport, the Hexenkessel Ensemble and André Hermlin. However, the future of the fairy tale huts is once again uncertain due to uncertain rights of use of the parking areas.