David Bennent
The Swiss actor David Bennent was born in Lausanne in 1966. His portrayal of Oskar Matzerath in Volker Schlöndorff's film adaptation of Günter Grass' "The Tin Drum" made him world famous in 1979.
From 1990 to 1997, David Bennent was part of the ensemble of the British theatre director Peter Brook in Paris, where his debut as Caliban in Brook's production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" was already enthusiastically received. Under Peter Brook's direction, he also appeared in "L'Homme qui", an adaptation of Oliver Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", and as Horatio in the Hamlet adaptation "Qui est là", among others. In Joël Jouanneau's production of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" he appeared on stage as Clov together with his father Heinz Bennent. The internationally successful production was shown in German and French over 100 times, including at the 1997 Salzburg Festival. In a reading with texts by Friedrich Hölderlin and Heiner Müller, also published as an audio book, together with Heinz Bennent, he recited from Müller's "Bildbeschreibung".
In 1999 he appeared with his sister Anne Bennent in the world premiere of George Tabori's "Purgatorium" at the Vienna Akademietheater and from 2002 he performed at the Berliner Ensemble in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (directed by Leander Haußmann) as well as in Tabori's "The Earthquake Concerto" and Lessing's "The Jews".
In 2016 David Bennent returned to the Salzburg Festival as Mammon in "Jedermann"; in 2017 he appeared as Rimbaud in Albert Ostermaier's "GLUT. Siegfried von Arabien" at the Nibelungen Festival Worms on the theatre stage.
He has also appeared in film productions such as "Traumschatten" (director: Steffen Groth), "Ulzhan - Das vergessene Licht" (director: Volker Schlöndorff) and "Nebel im August" (director: Kai Wessel) and in 2019 was in the final season of the crime series "Schuld nach Ferdinand von Schirach" and in "Tatort Münster".