The theatrical works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder are currently internationally recognized. Even 30 years after Fassbinder's death, his plays are performed worldwide, and some of his films are adapted for the stage. He was an actor, director, author, and artistic director. This lesser-known aspect of his artistic output is the focus of the exhibition at the German Theatre Museum.
Fassbinder's path took him from the Munich Action Theatre and antiteater to Bremen, where he worked at the most innovative subsidised theatre in West Germany during the 1960s, where Wilfried Minks created stage designs for him. After a stint in Bochum, where Peter Zadek began his spectacular directorship with him, Fassbinder moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he became the artistic director of the TAT.
Even after the failure of the co-determination model there, he continued to work on theatre projects until his death. Throughout his theatrical career, Fassbinder wrote 17 plays, including Katzelmacher, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and Bremer Freiheit—the output of an artist who directed 44 films in his 37 years of life.
The exhibition features previously unpublished photographic material, original posters, recordings of productions and rehearsals, and television recordings. Fassbinder's own comments from his Munich phase can also be heard. The members of the group with whom he created theatre are introduced as well. Documentation material helps visitors embark on a journey back to the late 1960s and early 1970s.
