Susanne Kennedy

Born in Friedrichshafen in 1977, Susanne Kennedy studied directing at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Amsterdam. During this period, she created a series of productions at Dutch theatres based on works by Enda Walsh, Sarah Kane and Elfriede Jelinek, as well as the experimental soap opera The Hideous (Wo)men (2013).

In 2011, Johan Simons invited her to work with the ensemble of the Münchner Kammerspiele. This was followed by productions of the film adaptation They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (2011) and Marieluise Fleißer’s debut play Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt [Purgatory in Ingolstadt] (2013). For this production, she was named “Young Director of the Year” by the theatre magazine Theater heute and received the 3sat Prize. Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt and Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? [Why Does Mr R. Run Amok? ] were invited to the Theatertreffen in 2014 and 2015.

In collaboration with the Ruhrtriennale, she created the music theatre parcours Orfeo in 2015, followed in 2016 by the multimedia work Medea.Matrix, developed together with visual artist Markus Selg. In the 2017/18 season, she presented her first world premiere at the Volksbühne Berlin with Women in Trouble. This was followed by Coming Society (2019) and Ultraworld (2020), both conceived and realised jointly with Markus Selg, as well as Oracle (2020) at the Münchener Kammerspiele.

In 2022, Susanne Kennedy staged Einstein on the Beach at Theater Basel, followed by Parsifal at Opera Vlaanderen in 2025.