HEBBEL AM UFER (HAU) A Theatre Combine of a Different Kind by Friedhelm Teicke A pack of dogs bred to fight is running about in the pit of the theatre. The audience stands on the stage, lured by the promise of singing pit bull terriers. Cut to another evening: spectators attending the "Siege of Bartleby" also have the option of spending the night in the theatre. A different evening finds the building deserted: the players have migrated to private apartments around Berlin. The Hebbel am Ufer, as we can see, does things differently. The intendant's name is Matthias Lilienthal. Before taking charge in 2003 of the three-theatre ensemble known as Hebbel am Ufer (HAU), which groups together the Hebbel-Theater (HAU 1), Theater am Halleschen Ufer (HAU 2) and the small Theater am Ufer (HAU 3), he was head dramaturg at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and in 2002 directed the "World Theatre" festival in the Ruhr district. Lilienthal has an aversion to "art shit" - that is to say, to conventional theatre, a category in which he also places the Volksbühne, his celebrated former place of employment. Lilienthal, who is in his mid-forties, prefers to collide with what he calls "reality shit". In the process he has propelled his theatres into experimental terrain far removed from the world of traditional drama. The rejuvenating campaign has meanwhile been judged a success. Working on a production budget that previously sufficed for merely one theatre, Lilienthal and his crew have pulled off the colossal feat of giving the tripartite theatre a programme, profile and dynamic of its very own. For that reason the trade journal "Theater heute" made the HAU its Theatre of the Year in 2004. At the same time, the HAU venues considerably liven up what was probably the drabbest part of the Kreuzberg district. Presenting 118 independent projects and productions from Germany and abroad, the programme packed into the eight months of the first season amounted to 335 performances. The Berlin arts calendar has been enriched by two new festivals: the "100 Berlin" meeting of independent companies, and the "Context" dance festival. At the inauguration of the HAU theatres in October 2003, Thomas Flierl, Berlin's senator of cultural affairs exhorted the intendant and his creative team to "perpetrate art". Christoph Schlingensief celebrated the occasion by setting fire to a straw cow, and gave his blessing to the venture: "As long as I have no theatre to call my own Matthias Lilienthal will enjoy my support!"