Christopher Rüping is one of the most influential directors in German-speaking theatre. His productions, which are as tender as they are exuberant, are created in close collaboration with a core team of long-standing colleagues, both on and off stage. Born in Hanover in 1985, Rüping began directing as a freelance director for theatres across the German-speaking world after studying directing at the Hamburg Theatre Academy and the Zurich University of the Arts, working for venues such as the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Staatstheater Stuttgart.

From 2016 to 2019, Rüping was resident director at the Münchner Kammerspiele under the artistic direction of Matthias Lilienthal. During this period, he created highly acclaimed and widely toured productions such as Drums in the Night by Bertolt Brecht, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and the ten-hour ancient spectacle Dionysos Stadt.

From 2019 to 2024, Rüping was part of the management team at the Schauspielhaus Zürich as resident director. There, with Jean-Luc Lagarce’s Simply the End of the World, he launched his family trilogy, which continued with Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg and concluded with Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing with Feathers at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. Furthermore, his production of Gier in Zurich marked a long-awaited return to the work of the playwright Sarah Kane, whose texts had originally inspired Rüping’s passion for theatre.

Rüping’s productions have received numerous awards, have been invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen five times, and have been staged at internationally renowned festivals, including in Tehran, Prague, Taipei, St Petersburg and Beijing. Christopher Rüping has a long-standing relationship with the Deutsches Theater Berlin: in 2013, he directed his first production here in the ‘Box’, followed by four further productions in the Kammerspiele and on the main stage. The transfer of his Zurich productions of Einfach das Ende der Welt (Simply the End of the World) and Gier marks the beginning of a new chapter in the director’s history with the theatre and its audience.

Christopher Rüping will open the 2026/27 season with his production of Deutscher Herbst – a co-production with the Ruhrtriennale.

Picture: Daniel Pilar