In 2009, director Martin Fendrich planned a production of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters." In the search for a suitable location, he came across the barrel vault beneath a railway bridge at Rottstraße 5. The production was received with enthusiasm, and together with actor and director Arne Nobel as well as director Hans Dreher, the plan was developed to permanently utilize the extraordinary space.
The disadvantages of the location quickly became a trademark. The S-Bahn is regularly heard passing over the bridge, and there is space for only about 50 spectators. There is no stage, no technical equipment, or the possibility of different entrances and exits. Since 2009, the directors—especially Arne Nobel—managed to develop a unique style from all these shortcomings, emphasizing the brutal closeness to the audience and demanding a raw, immediate performance. Texts and actors were always expressly placed at the center of attention. This was also a unique selling point in a time when independent theater primarily focused on performance and post-drama. Furthermore, the initial period was marked by celebrated megalomania: right from the start, Arne Nobel attempted to capture the Odysseus myth in a three-part cycle. Subsequently, a ten-part Nibelungen cycle was realized.
However, not only the productions attracted media attention—including several mentions in important critics' surveys and an invitation to the NRW Theater Meeting—but also eye-catching actions: In 2011, the Rottstr5Theater applied to direct the "Ring of the Nibelungs" in Bayreuth and, also in a media-effective manner, in 2012, for the takeover of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, after artistic director Valdemar Staffan Holm announced his resignation.
During this early period, the Rottstr5Theater benefited particularly from excellent actors who usually performed on stage out of idealism and used the opportunity to experiment. Among them were many who, after the end of Elmar Goerden's directorship at Schauspielhaus Bochum, initially found themselves without engagements.
The first years quickly solidified an almost mythologically charged reputation for the theater. In 2011, Arne Nobel left the house, Martin Fendrich had already departed shortly after the founding, and Hans Dreher moved to the Prinzregenttheater in 2019. Consequently, the program changed. For the students of the theater department at Folkwang University, the Rottstr5Theater became an important point of contact for initial productions, and independent groups gave guest performances in the Ruhr area.
In 2010, Oliver Paolo Thomas directed "Fight Club" at the Rottstr5Theater, based on Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Uhls, which developed into a sold-out long-running success, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2020, and still most closely evokes the excessive and sometimes brutal spirit of the theater's founding years.
