Paul Klee explored the natural world, the world of creatures and the senses through a multitude of layers and not just through the medium of painting. For instance his fascination for the performing figure, for three-dimensional pictures or stories played out is evident in the theatre puppets he made over a period of many years for his son Felix, or the stage sets for his handmade puppet theatre and the improvisations he recorded with his son. There are many pictures by Paul Klee which address the theme of the stage, the actor and the dancer. For instance der Einfall, sich zu verkleiden, 1939, 848 (UU 8) (The idea of dressing up), Kinder als Schauspieler, 1913, 101 (Children as actors), Wander-Artist (ein Plakat), 1940, 273 (L 13) (Itinerant artist – a poster), to mention but a few. Often in the titles of his paintings Paul Klee goes beyond the scope of the painting itself, to reveal himself as a roguish poet and witty storyteller.

Like painting, theatre also tries to explore, and both deploy related means. Paul Klee’s approaches to painting, which he set out in 1928 in a contribution to the bauhaus magazine entitled “precise trials in the field of art”, apply equally to the theatre: “you learn to look behind the façade, to grip things by their roots. you learn to recognise what flows beneath, learn the past history of the visible. [you] learn to dig deep, learn to expose. [you] learn to substantiate, learn to analyse.”

The Theatre’s program
The Theatre at the Zentrum Paul Klee draws its lifeblood from its geographic proximity to and engagement with the art on display there. Impressions gained while strolling through the collection or the temporary exhibition are taken a step further, confirmed or questioned by the theatre. In doing so the theatre aims to give food for thought about perception and viewing, about questioning and searching in general and depiction and abstraction in art in particular.

The Zentrum Paul Klee regularly invites theatre artists from Switzerland and abroad, artists whose work relates to Paul Klee in the broadest sense and whose repertory includes plays with a definite emphasis on the pictorial. Like Paul Klee, who devoted a great deal of attention to materials, who experimented with all kinds of painting techniques and colours, and gave his pencils evocative names such as “Grütli” and “Robert the Devil”, object theatre also breathes life into the inanimate and turns materials into protagonists.

Besides theatre performances dance productions and readings are also staging.

In conjunction with current performances anyone who has a particular interest in the subject has the opportunity to watch theatre artists at work and even become actively involved with different forms of theatre at different workshops.