History

The theatre festival auawirleben has been an integral part of Bern's cultural life for many decades. 1982 is considered the founding year of the festival, with the first edition of «Aua, wir leben!» - as the festival was originally called – taking place in 1983. Peter Borchardt, then director of the City Theatre of Bern, created a series of guest performances of German-speaking contemporary drama from 1983 to 1987. In addition to numerous premieres, the programme also included productions by the City Theatre of Bern. After his directorship, Peter Borchardt continued the guest performance series from 1988 as an independent festival. From 1989 to 1998, the festival carried the slightly modified name «Aua wir leben».

Beatrix Bühler was a member of the festival team as early as 1985 and, together with Peter Borchardt, formed the artistic direction, which also included Guy Krneta from 1989 to 1991. The team founded the independent theatre group Berner Ensemble in order to create co-productions together with playwrights. In 1998, Peter Borchardt ended his work in the management team, and the newly founded association «Aua wir leben» became the legal entity. Beatrix Bühler continued the festival under the even more compact name «Auawirleben» in changing management teams, from 2012 in co-management with Nicolette Kretz. In 2014, the latter took over the overall management of the festival, which is now run under the name auawirleben Theaterfestival Bern. In 2020, the festival's municipal subsidies were substantially increased, so that auawirleben can now devote itself more intensively to its tasks, in particular by increasing the core team's staffing levels and offering fairer salaries. auawirleben has been awarded various cultural prizes, including the Swiss Theatre Prize of the Federal Office of Culture in 2014.

Since its founding, auawirleben has always been programmed around a thematic header and tries to respond to political and social changes with its programme. In the last festival editions, the topics of global justice, definitions of normality or communication played a role. In any case, auawirleben's annual program provides a small overview of artistic activity in contemporary theatre. In its early days, the festival primarily presented productions from Switzerland and German-speaking countries, but over the years the proportion of international guest performances has increased. Today auawirleben brings productions from all over Europe to Bern, with equal attention paid to productions from the independent scene and those from institutional theatres.

The main venues of the festival are the Schlachthaus Theatre (formerly Altes Schlachthaus), the Dampfzentrale and the Tojo Theatre Reitschule. Every year, other venues are added, for example the Great Hall of the Reitschule, the PROGR, the Heitere Fahne, etc.

auawirleben Theatre Festival Bern is financed by contributions from Kultur Stadt Bern, foundations and income from catering and tickets.