Theater an der Kö

Theater an der Kö

The theater opened on September 21, 1994 with a ceremony and address by the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau , and the play AusCalcified Hamlet , a comedy in two acts by Paul Rudnick . The preliminary decisions to build the approximately 400-seat boulevard theater were made by René Heinersdorff , today’s theater director, his theater-experienced parents,  the Arnold family as co-owners of the Schadow-Arkaden and the project developer Walter Brune shortly after the cornerstone of the shopping center was laid in 1992. originally intended name of the theater –Theater in the Schadow Arkaden – is said to have been dropped after the current name was suggested by the British actor Peter Ustinov , to whom Heinersdorff had reported in Berlin about his theater plans, with the following remark: “Schadow Arkaden? Do they do Indian shadow plays there? Why don’t you call it ‘an der Kö’? Everybody knows the Kö. I never go to the Kö with my wife and the credit card together.”  Since the theater opened, many well-known actors have performed on its stage. The theater also drew attention when it engaged the actors Martin Semmelrogge and Karsten Speck had to serve a prison sentence .