Basel's municipal theatre was founded in 1834 with a 1300-seat building, which was astonishing for a city of 26,000 inhabitants at the time. A new building in the baroque theatre style followed in 1875 and was rebuilt after a fire in 1909. In 1968, the private theatre "Komödie" was assigned to the Basel City Theatre as a playhouse: This marked the birth of the "Basel Theatre". The opening of today's Stadttheater on Theaterplatz followed in 1975. Thanks to the generous donation of the "Ladies First" foundation, construction of the new playhouse on Steinentorstrasse began at the end of 1999.

The film features the directors Michael Schindhelm and Georges Delnon, who talk about the special features of the Swiss theatre system. At the end of the sixties, director Werner Düggelin attracted a lot of attention with his productions. Matthias Habich, then in the ensemble of the Theater Basel, tells of the provocations and the collaboration with the writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The "Heimatabende" by the Swiss Christoph Marthaler also raise the profile of Theater Basel. And at the end of the nineties, the stage becomes the focus of criticism and audiences in the so-called pop theatre. Director Stefan Bachmann tells of those times when the Theater Basel had a reputation as a "blood and pants theatre".