The Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim, founded in 1981 by director Roberto Ciulli, dramaturge Helmut Schäfer, and set designer Gralf-Edzard Habben, is one of Germany's most renowned independent theatres. Housed in a former brine bath in the idyllic Raffelberg park, it became world-famous for its poetic, dreamlike, image-rich directorial style. Unlike municipal theatres, the house dispenses with a fixed repertory system and instead maintains a long-standing ensemble that keeps its productions running for years. The theatre is famous above all for its cross-border work: it established intensive relationships with artists in crisis regions early on and performed in countries to which hardly any other German ensemble travelled — theatre as a means of international understanding.
In the 1990s the ensemble travelled for guest performances to war-torn former Yugoslavia and to Iran — to places where cultural exchange seemed almost impossible.
At a glance
- Type
- Theatre
- Location
- Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
- Address
- Akazienallee 61, 45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr
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