Theater Dionysos – The Group

The Dionysos Theatre has been around since 2006 and has made a name for itself in the Ruhr region – for theatre with depth that is not only entertaining but also thought-provoking.

It all began with a biographical reflection on the views of older people on today’s society, people who have experienced a world war, reconstruction and the social revoultion of the 1960s.

The first play was called ‘Wege durchs Labyrinth’ (Paths through the Labyrinth).Since then, the group has repeatedly addressed social and socio-political issues that are currently in the air, e.g. the acceleration of our lives (‘Zeitenwende’ (Turning Point)), social divisions (‘Besorgte Bürger’ (Concerned Citizens)), capitalism and ecology (‘Der Fischer und seine Frau’ (The Fisherman and his Wife)) or dealing with fears during the Corona pandemic (‘Make Love not fear’). But humour is not neglected either, for example in the comedy ‘Die Chance deines Lebens’ (The Chance of a Lifetime), based on Goldoni’s ‘Der Impresssario von Smyrna’ (The Impresario of Smyrna).

Sometimes it is philosophical or deep psychological questions that preoccupy the group, as in ‘Der Natur des Bösen’ (The Nature of Evil), ‘Traumwelten…’ (Dream Worlds…) Metamorphoses‘ or ’Orpheus and Eurydice”. Let’s see what the future brings; life offers enough material.

With each of its productions, Theater Dionysos goes on a small tour in North Rhine-Westphalia: to Recklinghausen, Herten, Essen, Dortmund … the group has also performed in Münster and Hamburg, and in 2010 even at a festival in Italy. In 2016, it celebrated its 10th anniversary and realised its long-held dream: to open its doors and perform with young people. With the play ‘Nur die Liebe ist stärker als der Tod’ (Only Love is Stronger than Death), the former senior citizens’ theatre finally became an intergenerational theatre group in which old and young perform together on stage. Today, people aged 42-79 perform with Theater Dionysos. Some have been with the group for a long time, others have only recently joined.

The group works with methods from acting, film, dance and movement theatre: first researching and experimenting, then refining until the production is ready. The theme or play that the group will tackle is decided at the beginning of the rehearsal phase. The final outcome is not determined at the outset, but is developed jointly during the rehearsals: the result is always a world premiere, a play that has never been seen before.