Barbara Frey
An unwavering passion for theatre
Swiss Theatre Award 2016
Barbara Frey was born in Basel in 1963 and studied German and philosophy in Zurich. She played the drums in various Swiss bands before joining the Theater Basel under Frank Baumbauer in 1988 as a musician and assistant director. Since 1992 she has been a director in her own right, initially working in the independent scene and at the Theater Neumarkt, the Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. From 1999 to 2001 she was in-house director at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin, and occupied the same position from 2005 to 2008 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. She staged a number of productions at the Theater Basel, the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich (“Uncle Vanya” was performed at the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2004), the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Salzburg Festival. Barbara Frey has been director of the Schauspielhaus in Zurich since 2009.
Barbara Frey is the first woman to lead German-speaking Switzerland’s biggest theatre. She has enlarged the ensemble and puts on her own productions but has also provided a platform for young directors and fostered a culture of communication. At the Schauspielhaus she has staged classics such as Shakespeare’s “Richard III”, Molière’s “The Misanthrope”, “The Trial” after Franz Kafka, Goldoni’s “Servant of Two Masters”, as well as contemporary productions including the premiere of “Malaga” by Lukas Bärfuss, Marieluise Fleisser’s “Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt”, the Edgar Allan Poe project “A Dream Within a Dream” and “Meer” by Jon Fosse. She continues to guest direct at prestigious venues in the German-speaking world, making her debut as an opera director in 2014 with Richard Strauss’s “Elektra” at the Semperoper in Dresden.
“She started out beating and percussing. As a theatre director, she is a virtuoso artist of rhythms: from the dull rumble to the raging tempest and on to the breathless hush before the final crash. As head of the Schauspielhaus, she has guided the institution out of crisis and into calmer waters: the staff, board and audience are once again in harmony. She arrived at the Theater Basel in 1988 as an unknown, but by 1995 she was directing in Germany’s leading theatres and then suddenly she was everywhere. Just like Joan of Arc, whose refusal to compromise and incorruptibility she shares – as well as an unwavering passion in pursuit of new theatrical sounds. The Maid of Orleans confronted the flames. Today, we take it for granted that women can assert themselves – yet incomprehensibly, they rarely do so. Barbara Frey lives her potential to the full – with ever-present kindness.”
Gardi Hutter, jury member
