Roberto Ciulli. The Foreign Gaze

Roberto Ciulli, born in Milan in 1934, is one of the European directors who have helped shape contemporary German theatre. In 2020, his memoirs were published by Alexander Verlag Berlin; the announced presentation at the Akademie der Künste could not take place due to COVID-19.

Now, one year later, the questions about the togetherness and the what for of theatre have become more urgent; answers can also be found in earlier attempts, successful experiments and experiences gained. The multiple award-winning founder and artistic director of Theater an der Ruhr established a theatre in Mülheim that has always remained open to fixed and changing artistic communities, including cross-border artistic partnerships that are continually formed anew from the desire for cooperation.

At the same time, Roberto Ciulli stands for artistic work that seeks truths of theatre that are not bound to culture or language; his credo: “You have to dive very deep to bring up the treasure of the subtext”. His echolocation remains Der fremde Blick (The Foreign Gaze) – the title of his memoirs, which the doyen of intercultural theatre will talk about with German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani.