Grips-Theater

The Grips-Theater (own spelling: GRIPS Theater) is a children's and youth theatre at Altonaer Straße 22 in the Hansaviertel quarter of Berlin's Mitte district. It has existed since 1969. In 1966 the Theater für Kinder was created in Berlin at the Reichskabarett in the Ludwigkirchstraße in the Wilmersdorf quarter. The Reichskabarett was at the time a well-known and successful left-leaning cabaret group. The co-founder and one of the authors of the Reichskabarett group was Volker Ludwig. In the summer of 1966 they began performing theatre for children at weekends. The opening piece was the cabaret-style adaptation of the fairy tale The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs. Gradually further pieces adapted for children were developed, and more and more performances for children took place. The idea was not merely to bring fairy tales to the stage, which was the standard children's theatre of the time. Instead, imaginative pieces written specifically for children were to be performed, pieces that in their stage action had a direct connection to the children's current world — something fairy tales offered little or not at all.