Schauspielhaus Zürich: Pfauen

The Schauspielhaus Zürich: Pfauen offers a varied and exciting program that is both international and collective. Spoken theater is complemented by dance, performance, and installations and the program features theater classics, world premieres, and new performances, some of which are of political and current relevance. All performances are surtitled in English.

With the start of the 2025/26 season, Pınar Karabulut and Rafael Sanchez have taken over as artistic directors of the Schauspielhaus.

Theater Monday

All tickets for performances on a Monday are available at half price. Theater Monday applies to all venues and all own performances.

History

The Schauspielhaus Zürich: Pfauen can look back on an eventful history. It opened as a playhouse in 1901 with the premiere of a new production of Goethe’s “The Accomplices” (Die Mitschuldigen) and remained in private hands until 1938. It was given a breath of fresh artistic life by the arrival of emigrant actors and actresses from Germany, including Therese Giehse and Kurt Horwitz, who were fleeing the Nazi regime. The theater took on an explicitly antifascist direction and performed critically chosen plays. Some of Bertolt Brecht’s most important works celebrated their world premiere at the Pfauen, and numerous dramas by Swiss writers Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt were also premiered here.

Besides the Pfauen, the Schauspielhaus runs two stages at the Schiffbau – the Halle and the Box.