This is, especially in the land of the much admired and criticized director's theater, something special. However, it occasionally leads to such curious decisions as not inviting the premiere of a drama because it is deemed inappropriate for the work. Then the play sometimes travels to Mülheim the following year in a different production.
Every May/June, the theater days take place, which, as an initiative supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city on the Ruhr, represent a remarkable funding instrument for contemporary drama and at the same time serve as a seismograph of current trends. Seven to eight new plays from the past season are presented, mostly in their premieres.
The selection is made by an independent panel consisting of theater critics. A second jury of five theater practitioners, critics, and playwrights awards the prestigious Mülheim Playwright Prize, endowed with 15,000 euros, at the end of the festival. The Mülheim Children's Plays Prize is also endowed with 15,000 euros. In addition, there are non-monetary awards: the "Audience Award of the Mülheim Theater Days," determined by voting cards collected after the performances, as well as the Youth Jury Award.
The list of winners of the Mülheim Theater Prize reads like a lexicon of German-speaking drama from the last three decades. The names range from the first prizewinner Franz Xaver Kroetz with his socially motivated folk theater to the language poets and sound poets Herbert Achternbusch, Ernst Jandl, Werner Schwab, and the three-time laureate Elfriede Jelinek (most recently in 2009). The staunch pessimist of history Heiner Müller stands next to the Jewish humorist George Tabori and the chronicler of the Federal Republic, Botho Strauß.
One finds positions such as the great soloist Einar Schleef, the mythical storyteller Tankred Dorst, the special case Volker Ludwig (for his political Berlin "Linie 1" musical), the musical brain acrobat Rainald Goetz, and the dark-speaking Dea Loher. Mülheim has always accompanied tendencies of dramatic development: for example, with the productive René Pollesch and his deconstructions of the individual in the raging present, as well as with the group "Rimini Protokoll," whose collective has established a real theater with "experts of everyday life."
