Christoph Marthaler

Christoph Marthaler (Erlenbach, Switzerland, 1951) is a Swiss stage director and composer considered one of the most unique creators of contemporary European theatre. With a work that fuses absurd humour, social criticism and a deeply expressive use of music, Marthaler has built an unmistakable stage universe, full of out-of-place characters, absurd situations and soundscapes laden with nostalgia.

Initially trained as a musician and flutist, his interest in theatre led him to link up with the stage world in the 1980s, first as a composer and later as a director. Since then, his work has oscillated between text theatre, live music, installation and opera, with an aesthetic commitment recognisable by bureaucratic or institutionally inspired sets (stations, waiting rooms, schools, offices) where time seems suspended and the characters move with strangely choreographed rhythms.

A musical and absurd theatre: the unmistakable hallmark of Christoph Marthaler

Works such as Murx den Europäer! (1993), Hotel Angst, Kasimir und Karoline, Stägeli uf, Stägeli ab, Tälleri Tälleri Tuu or King Size have toured the main festivals and theatres in Europe. In these creations, Marthaler uses language in a fragmented and musical way, often more as a sound or rhythm than as a narrative vehicle. Repetition, the everyday gesture turned into a ritual and a persistent irony about the absurdity of modern life are recurring elements of his style.

Another distinctive feature is his constant collaboration with a loyal core of performers and creators, such as the set designer Anna Viebrock, with whom he shares an aesthetic vision based on deteriorated, hyper-detailed and highly evocative spaces. The music, often performed by the same cast, acts as a central dramatic element, from popular songs to classical lieder.

Christoph Marthaler: a critical and poetic look at European society

Awarded with multiple international awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2015, Marthaler has been director of the Schauspielhaus in Zurich and has left an indelible mark on European public theatre. His work is a melancholic and hilarious dissection of Western society: empty rituals, bureaucracy, everyday alienation and collective memory.

With a unique combination of theatre, music and absurdity, Christoph Marthaler invites us to look at ourselves from the outside – with tenderness and cruelty at the same time – to understand the fragility of the human condition.