Some subscribers will get an unusual call these days.

Then the principal and professor himself will be on the line.

Claus Helmer has decided to address the audience personally, especially that of the Fritz Rémond Theater in the zoo.

With a question that worries him.

When he reopens the house on September 9th, completely different rules could apply than now.

And then it might no longer be possible to redeem it with the photo on the season schedule.

Eva-Maria Magel

Head of culture editor Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

On the title page you can see Helmer himself, with the promise underneath: "Of course we have reserved your regular seat for you".

What is true.

But whether, in the single or double chessboard, everyone will really sit on their favorite chairs, that is still in the stars.

“This inability to decide makes me nervous,” says Helmer.

Wailing is not his way: "Until now, the aid from the federal and state governments has been such that those who have managed seriously got through." But that could not go long.

He too has received help from the federal and state governments, although that does not make up for the losses.

The first guest appearances have been agreed

Helmer, who is well networked among private theaters and with actors in German-speaking countries, is worried about the future of the theater, especially in smaller places.

What if cities now find that, given the financial situation, theater can be dispensed with?

One or the other guest series is already suffering from the fact that cities are cutting or discontinuing rows.

For Helmer, too, the productions sold, as guest performances and to tour agencies, have so far been a source of income.

Only a fraction of the performances have been able to take place in the past year and a half.

Now Helmer has arranged the first guest appearances.

Playing outdoors is not an option for him: because the planning is completed so much in advance.

And besides, the actors he works with are mostly taken in the summer.

Since he started doing theater on and behind the stage, it was always busy.

“The time at home was terrible for me,” says Helmer.

On the very day it had to close, on March 13, 2020, the Fritz Rémond Theater could have celebrated 25 years under his leadership.

He could have celebrated his stage anniversary this March, 65 years old, when Helmer was twelve for the first time on stage in Vienna, a little later at the side of Werner Krauss at the Burgtheater, and he was the youngest at the Reinhardt Seminar.

On February 28, 2022 it will be 50 years that he will direct the comedy in Frankfurt.

He has always been an optimist, says Helmer: "I hope that I can then celebrate everything together."

There is also a bonus

He was only able to play a few performances in autumn 2020 before the second lockdown came. With “Complex Fathers” and the draft horses Hugo Egon Balder and Jochen Busse, directed by fellow player René Heinersdorff, he wants to reopen the comedy on September 4th. The contracts are all made well into next year, he says, there is no other way.

That is why the Fritz Rémond Theater will also show those pieces that were planned for the previous season: “God” by Ferdinand von Schirach, “We Are Not Angels” by Albert Husson and Marivaux's “Game of Love and Chance”. On top of that, there is a bonus: The opening track “A Murderous Accident” increases the number of productions to seven this time. Anyone who has been loyal as a subscriber will be given a performance for free, that's what Helmer came up with. The people were "touching", had kept tickets - but would the audience now flock?

The uncertainty is difficult, he says, but the actors were looking forward to finally getting back to work.

Sometimes they are "very depressed".

He himself has canceled his return on the stage in "Monsieur Claude 2", saying that he cannot think of games in coping with the pandemic.

“I'm just writing letters”.

And now?

In all his years as a theater director, he has learned that you have to strive for the best and always make compromises.

“The theaters are now being awakened.” Then we see further.

The Fritz Rémond Theater opens on September 9th, the comedy on September 4th.

Information at fritzremond.de.