Back to the Future

It wasn’t the sword of Damocles, but the wrecking ball that hung dangerously low over the grey lead roof at Theaterstrasse 6 in Winterthur around ten years ago. The Brutalist building from 1979, which looks as though someone had stacked several templates of the same building on top of one another, is showing its age. So, demolish it – or renovate it after all? In the end, the decision is made in favour of a complete overhaul. Fortunately.

For if you look into the auditorium and the theatre’s offices in autumn 2025 – some 15 months after the start of the refurbishment work – you could well find yourself raving about it: Bright orange heating and ventilation pipes criss-cross the deep blue steel truss structure, all the doors gleam in signal red, and the seat cushions in the auditorium shimmer between moss green and moss soft. And just look at the hat racks in the cloakrooms! The mirrors! Anyone who’s subscribed to Ricardo’s search terms like ‘retro’ and ‘70s’ will find it hard to get enough of the theatre’s faithful reproduction of the original interior.

“You could say it’s Winterthur’s Centre Pompidou,” says Kirsten Barkey, Head of Sales, Communications and Marketing, describing the freshly refurbished theatre building.

The resemblance to the Parisian arts and culture centre is unmistakable. Like its French counterpart, the Winterthur Theatre is also a fine example of high-tech architecture. And there, as here, the architecture and the programme vie for the audience’s attention. And mine, too. Actually, I didn’t come to talk to Kirsten Barkey about colours and window shapes, but about the new ‘Performance’ programme section. About how this section opens up the possibility of not having to pigeonhole every piece strictly into the categories of drama, musical theatre or dance. But we’re getting sidetracked: from the opening weekend (“fantastic!”), via the Liebestrasse temporary use (“small and cosy”), right through to the auditorium layout (“good view from every seat”). Time and again, the nature of touring theatre comes up. Yet it is precisely this drifting that suits the new programme section. “Performance – with this, we also want to reflect the diversity of theatrical creation,” explains Kirsten Barkey. “Over the last few decades, theatre has become richer and more diverse in form.” Not every production can or wants to be pinned down. Above all, straying from and breaking with conventional forms gives rise to something new – whilst at the same time giving projects from the independent scene greater visibility. “From Nouveau Cirque and slapstick to storytelling theatre with live drawings – the Performance section features productions that think outside the box and are not so easily defined.”

The fact that the Winterthur Theatre now looks almost exactly as architect Frank Krayenbühl had envisaged it in the 1970s is actually quite incredible. “It was planned, it was renovated, it was opened.” Not every building site can claim that. And now? There is acting, singing, dancing and, above all, performance.

At the end of November, the first play from the performance programme will take to the stage – and, of all things, one in which the theatre itself takes on the leading role. At the centre of it all is a man (Marc Oosterhoff), who is director, stage technician and prop master all at once. And who is grappling with the fact that the technology and set design have suddenly taken on a life of their own. The production is called “Préparation pour un miracle” and was also invited to the Swiss Theatre Festival.

The Winterthur Theatre has already completed the preparations. Successfully, one might say. Even if a few screws still need tightening here and there and the smell of fresh paint hangs in the air: the blue wonder, speckled with orange, red and green, is ready to go. “It’s a venue that’s now equipped for the future,” remarks Kirsten Barkey.

She’s right. I’ll definitely be back soon.