While the performance venues Stage A and Stage B at Gessnerallee are being renovated, the performance-intensive degree programs in Theater and Dance will have the opportunity to present their productions to a new audience outside of Zurich. Until June 2025, "The Hall" in The Valley will regularly serve as a ZHdK stage with performances that remain free and open to the public.
The play Farm der Tiere by Anna Maria Lipponen has already showcased part of the production at the temporary venue. Master’s directing student Anna-Maria Lipponen has written a new adaptation of George Orwell's classic Animal Farm. In this version, along with the community of animals, Farmer Jones – much like the main character Dante in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy – embarks on a journey that takes him from hell to paradise. Farm der Tiere is a disturbingly relevant story about greed for power and the mechanisms behind the rise of totalitarianism. The work is a Gesamtkunstwerk, combining powerful stage art, film, intricate sound design, and a refined visual world – a complex, impressive exploration of how power is abused and how ideologies become tools of oppression.
The first play to take place entirely in The Valley is the one by Master’s Dramaturgy graduate Dominik Fürer. With "Once There Was a Small Person", he tells a moving story about loneliness, melancholy, and silence – a production that touches and resonates deeply.
Dance also celebrates its premiere in The Valley. With "RAW" Master’s Dance students take on a creative challenge, choreographing short pieces that will be performed by Bachelor’s students from the Contemporary Dance program – a diverse, full-length program full of energy and innovation.