Die Gorillas

Die Gorillas was founded in May 1997 by a group of actors who had previously performed together in a Theatersport ensemble, bringing Keith Johnstone's Gorilla Theatre format to the Ratibor, a backyard theatre in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. Founding members included Thomas Chemnitz, Leon Dueuel, Regina Fabian, Tom Jahn, Christoph Jungmann, Ramona Kronke, Robert Munzinger, Norbert Riechmann, and Michael Wolf. Within a year the ensemble expanded to ten actors and two musicians; Billa Christe, Barbara Klehr, and Rudy Redl subsequently joined.

In 2001, Die Gorillas launched the IMPRO Berlin festival, an annual event at the Ratibortheater that grew into what the ensemble describes as Europe's largest improvised theatre festival, held each March.

Around 2008, a junior group called the Gimmicks, including Bjorn Harras, Luise Schnittert, and musician Felix Raffel, served as the ensemble's next-generation performers for approximately two years. All 15 original founding members remained with the company through its first 23 years of operation.

Beyond stage performance, the company runs Berlin's largest improvisation school, with courses running since 1998, and a business theatre operation. The ensemble has participated in EU-funded international theatrical co-productions and has applied improvisation in pedagogical and therapeutic contexts.

Die Gorillas performs long-form improvisational plays entirely in German, creating stories from audience suggestions through a range of original formats developed over their first two decades. The Gorilla Theatre format, derived from Keith Johnstone's competitive structure, remains central to their repertoire alongside formats such as Plattenbau (in which audiences shape the lives of residents in an imagined apartment building near Alexanderplatz), Cucumber or Banana (competitive format with three directors), The Big 7 (audience selects the story's protagonists), and Ick und Berlin (audience questions drive the narrative).

The ensemble's home, the Ratibortheater, provides a dedicated space for both performances and the annual IMPRO festival. The company also performs throughout Berlin, Potsdam, and on tour in Germany and Europe.

Gorilla Theatre: competitive format based on Keith Johnstone's original concept, the ensemble's founding format.

Plattenbau: the audience imagines removing the facade of an apartment building near Alexanderplatz to reveal residents whose lives the ensemble spontaneously inhabits.

Cucumber or Banana: competitive format featuring three directors.

The Big 7: the audience selects favourite characters who become the story's protagonists.

Ick und Berlin: audience questions about Berlin shape the narrative.

Die Gorillas established a durable centre for Berlin's long-form improv practice, operating continuously since 1997 at the Ratibortheater. The IMPRO Berlin festival, launched in 2001, became one of Europe's primary annual improv gatherings and brought international companies to the city each spring. The ensemble's school, Berlin's largest improv training institution, trained a generation of Berlin improvisers.