Maries Bücher Readings for a friend

Marie Zimmermann’s influence can really be felt in the programme of this year’s RuhrTriennale. Marie, who grew up in North Rhine-Westphalia, had already had considerable success as an artistic director, as artistic director of the Theaterformen and Theater der Welt 2006 festivals. She was looking forward to being at the helm of the RuhrTriennale and exited about taking over the reins from Gérard Mortier and Jürgen Flimm. Her sudden and unexpected death on 18^th April of last year is a great loss to us all.

Marie travelled widely across the globe. She always enjoyed seeing new places and meeting new people. And she was a passionate reader. Her great and particular talent as a programme curator was to enable an audience to approach the unknown and the unusual in an exciting way.

On 24^th August in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, in memory of Marie and in recognition of her work for the Festival, actors who knew her will read from texts that contributed to her thinking as she prepared for the RuhrTriennale. It will offer those who were not able to meet her an opportunity to become better acquainted with this remarkable person.

Salman Rushdie in particular was a favourite writer – Marie herself had adapted a version of his texts. However, alongside other German authors, Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage will be at the heart of the readings. Johnson’s determination to live up to the demands and complexity of the modern is the reason that this book was one of Marie’s favourites. But Marie Zimmermann had also been working on contemporary works and texts by authors from NRW, she wanted so much to feel part of the Ruhrgebiet and its people.