Matthias Lilienthal (born 21 December 1959) is a German dramaturge and theatre director. Matthias Lilienthal 4671

Life and work

Born in Berlin, Lilienthal grew up as the second of three children in Berlin-Neukölln. After graduating from the Berlin Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster (1978), he studied history,

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

and

theatre studies Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also enco ...

at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

, but dropped out after ten years.Gabriela Herpel: ''Der Mann aus Reihe drei''. In autumn, Matthias Lilienthal will take up his post as the new artistic director of the Munich Kammerspiele. Many believe he will shake up the venerable theatre. But he has been doing so for a long time. In the ''.'' Nr. 9, 27 February 2015, .

Mid-1980s - 2002

In the mid-1980s, Lilienthal worked as a freelance journalist for the '' taz'', the ' and the ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

''; he was then an assistant director to Achim Freyer at the

Burgtheater The Burgtheater (; literally: "Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater", originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in ...

in Vienna. From 1988 to 1991, under artistic director Frank Baumbauer dramaturge at the Theater Basel, where he worked with the then unknown

Christoph Marthaler Christoph Marthaler (17 October 1951) is a Swiss director and musician. Biography Born in Zurich, Marthaler initially studied music (recorder and oboe). At the end of the 1960s, he attended Jacques Lecoq's theatre school in Paris. Back in Sw ...

and tried to convince Baumbauer to bring

Frank Castorf Frank Castorf (born 17 July 1951 in East Berlin) is a German theater director and was the artistic director of the ''Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz'' from 1992 to 2015. His work is often associated with postdramatic theatre. Biography ...

to Basel. When Castorf made him an offer, Lilienthal moved to the

Volksbühne The Volksbühne ("People's Theatre") is a theater in Berlin. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Rosa Luxemburg Square) in what was the GDR's capital. It has been called Berlin's most iconic theatre. About The V ...

Berlin under Castorf's directorship and was chief dramaturge and deputy artistic director there until 1998. In 2002, he was programme director of the Theater der Welt festival in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

. He is also the initiator of the now internationally performed project .

2003–2014: Berlin, Beirut, Mannheim

In September 2003, Lilienthal became artistic director and managing director of the Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) in Berlin. In August 2010, he announced that he would not extend his contract beyond 2012. Instead, he worked with young artists in Beirut for ten months from autumn 2012. The jurors of the magazine '' Theater heute'' chose Hebbel am Ufer under Lilienthal's direction as the 2012 . Rüdiger Schaper:
Matthias Lilienthal: "I don't like art crap."
' In ''

Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...

'' from 6 September 2012 In 2014, he directed the international Theater der Welt festival in Mannheim.

2015–2020: Munich

Since the 2015/2016 season, Lilienthal has been artistic director of the

Munich Kammerspiele The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstraße (Munich), Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three ...

, succeeding Johan Simons.Matthias Lilienthal will be artistic director of the Münchner Kammerspiele from 2015. Press release of the Cultural Department of the City of Munich of 16 September 2013
/ref> For his directorship, he announced the inclusion of "free groups or certain aesthetics of the independent scene in the city theatre" and the cooperation with theatre collectives such as , Rimini Protokoll and Gob Squad. Already before the start of the season, Lilienthal called for a worldwide tender for the art action ''Shabbyshabby Apartments'': For four weeks in autumn 2015, 24 temporary huts and cottages stood in central locations in the city, preferably in places that stand for high rents such as Maximilianstraße. These accommodations could each be rented for 35 euros per person per night including breakfast in the theatre canteen in 2015.Christiane Lutz: ''Schöner wohnen in der Badewanne. With a spectacular action, the Kammerspiele want to draw attention to the precarious housing situation: In Munich's city centre, they are setting up unusual dwellings that anyone can rent.'' In: ''Süddeutsche Zeitung.'' No. 85, 14 April 2015, , p. R1. The project was intended to draw attention to Munich's high rental prices. The action was organised by and Axel Timm from the . With Foerster-Baldenius, Lilienthal had already carried out a very similar project entitled ''Hotel Shabbyshabby'' at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 2014. In March 2018, it was announced that Lilienthal would not seek an extension for his contract at the Kammerspiele, which ran until 2020. In summer 2019, however, critics named the Kammerspiele Theatre of the Year, 's ''Dionysos Stadt'' was best production, and other prizes were awarded for acting, stage design and young actors. The

Berliner Theatertreffen The Berliner Theatertreffen ("Berlin theatre meeting") is a two-week long theatre festival occurring yearly in May in Berlin, Germany. It is organised by the Berliner Festspiele corporation, funded by the of Germany. During the festival, thos ...

invited productions of the Kammerspiele. To mark the farewell of Lilienthal's directorship, the Olympiastadion in Munich was staged ''because of Corona''. The Japanese director Toshiki Okada staged the Opening Ceremony, a one-hour performance with the Kammerspiele ensemble. The premiere on 11 July 2020 was "a spun-poetic piece" that alluded to this summer's Olympic Games in Japan, which were cancelled due to Corona, which most theatre critics from FAZ to Süddeutsche Zeitung to taz reviewed predominantly favourably.

Influences and theatre conception

Lilienthal described as his most impressive theatre experience the production ''Winterreise im Olympiastadion'' by Klaus Michael Grüber, which he saw in Berlin in 1977, "300 spectators shivering in the Olympic Stadium at minus 20 degrees".Matthias Lilienthal in an interview with Christine Dössel: ''Hallo Hybrid. Stadttheater-Schreck Matthias Lilienthaol takes over the Münchner Kammerspiele. And how!'' In the ''

.'' No. 105, 8 May 2015, , . When asked about important teachers, Lilienthal named

, Frank Baumbauer, Wilfried Schulz and his friendship with Christoph Schlingensief. Lilienthal does not see theatre as an elitist space, but as a place for reflection and encounter that takes up the themes of a city and plays them back into the streets, as a "laboratory for trying out urban living space"Matthias Lilienthal, in Evelyn Vogel ''Immer im Takt. The designated artistic director of the Munich Kammerspiele, Matthias Lilienthal, and Abbot Johannes Eckert of St. Bonifaz Munich and Andechs Monastery talk about life in a complex time at the salon talk at the Bayerischer Hof.'' in the ''Süddeutsche Zeitung.'' Nr. 167, 23 July 2015, , p. R22.

Membership

Lilienthal has been a member of the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

since 1999.

References

External links

* *
Tabellarische Biografie
at the

* Rüdiger Schaper:
Reinhauen, draufhauen, abhauen. Matthias Lilienthal gibt das Hebbel am Ufer ab.
' In ''Der Tagesspiegel'', 20 August 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lilienthal, Matthias German theatre directors German dramaturges Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin 1959 births Living people People from Berlin