A period followed in which directors like Alexander May and Axel Corti, as well as premieres by Peter Handke, guaranteed significant attention. The structural change and the coal and steel crisis also affected theater operations in the working-class city. From the sixties to the nineties, it somewhat melted away. In 1991, the city council decided to close the music theater and establish a new drama ensemble.
From 1992, the Theater Oberhausen, under the management of Klaus Weise until 2003, experienced something like a miracle. It played its way into the forefront of NRW stages and was often able to overshadow Düsseldorf, the Schauspielhaus Bochum, or the Cologne stages. Much of this was due to Weise's own productions, a stable ensemble, and the approach of incorporating the industrial landscape. Powerful performances were created in the gasometer. Johannes Lepper, who had successfully directed several times in Oberhausen under Weise's leadership, became his successor but was unable to achieve continuity with his cumbersome, dark schedule.
From 2008 to 2017, director Peter Carp led the theater and brought directors like former Berliner Volksbühne star Herbert Fritsch to Oberhausen. Fritsch's production "Nora or A Doll's House" received an invitation to the Berliner Theatertreffen in 2011 – the second in the 90-year history of the house. In 2022, Kathrin Mädler took over management.
