René Pollesch

The author and director René Pollesch was born in Friedberg/Dornheim (Hessia) in 1962 and died in Berlin in 2024. He studied applied theatre studies in Gießen and staged his own plays from 1984. From 2001 to 2007, René Pollesch was artistic director of the “Prater”-venue of Berlin’s Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz at Kastanienallee. In 2002, he was chosen as “Best German-language Dramatist” by the critic’s poll of the magazine Theater heute.

In 2007, he received the Viennese Theatre Prize NESTROY for “Das purpurne Muttermal” (produced at Akademietheater Wien). For “Fantasma” (Akademietheater Wien), he received the audience award of the 2009 Mülheimer Theatertage. Until 2017, he worked closely with set designer Bert Neumann at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Besides numerous staged plays, he also developed formats for series and films. His long-established practice as a post-dramatic author and director was essentially based on the autonomous work, i.e. the authorship of all artists assembled in the theatre – above all the actors and the designers of set and costumes. Only the co-operation of many who do not see autonomy as hermetic allows the theatre to avoid being subjected to the dictate of the director over a production or even an entire understanding of the theatre. René Pollesch is quoted as saying: “The first author of a theatre show is the set designer. They make a suggestion and are not recipients of instructions. And this suggestion is heard.”

René Pollesch staged his plays at theatres including Staatstheater Stuttgart, Burgtheater Vienna, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspielhaus Zürich as well as in Warsaw, Stockholm, Tokyo, Sofia and São Paulo. From 2021/22 to the time of his death in February 2024, he was artistic director of Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

Three of his productions were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen: 2002 the "Prater-Trilogie" (Stadt als Beute, Insourcing des Zuhause - Menschen in Scheiß-Hotels and Sex nach Mae West), 2012 "Kill your Darlings! Streets of Berladelphia", and "ja nichts ist ok" in 2025.