Heiki Riipinen

Director, performer, drag queen – Berlin, Germany
Participant International Forum 2024

Heiki Riipinen, born 1990, holds a bachelor’s degree in acting from the Norwegian Theatre Academy and a master’s degree in directing from The National Danish School of Performing Arts. Heiki Riipinen deals with theatre as an expanded practice, fluctuating between working as a director, actor, writer, dramaturg, costume designer, drag queen, curator and teacher. His performances make use of the theatre as a space to meet, where the challenge of co-existence is the central drama, and togetherness is the main aesthetic experience. Through fiction and speculation, he raises questions in regards to power, norms, gender, sexuality, social identity and group-thinking. His aim is to make existential-experimental entertainment.

His earlier work has been presented at stages such as Münchner Kammerspiele, Thalia Theater Hamburg and Black Box teater Oslo, and at festivals like Copenhagen Stage, Donaufestival Krems and GogolFest Kyiv. As a member of the collective by Proxy, he has been the artistic director of Teater Momentum in Odense and house-artist at Theater Freiburg. Their production “Stop Being Poor” won the jury-prize at Körber Studio Junge Regie in 2015.

Heiki Riipinen is currently a director at WORX programme at the Berliner Ensemble. His latest piece “HEDDA” is an exploration of the queer potential of Ibsen and asks questions regarding the horror of reproduction.