BACKGROUND

Édouard Louis is a French writer. Born Eddy Bellegueule, he studied sociology with Didier Eribon at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he currently lives. His debut autobiographical novel, The End of Eddy (2014), became a number-one bestseller in France and has been translated into 18 languages. In the book, he recounts his personal story growing up as a gay man in a working-class environment in the French provinces. His second, also autobiographical, novel, History of Violence, was published in 2017, followed by the social study Who Killed My Father. The author received the Pierre Guénin Prize for his commitment to combating homophobia.

Thomas Ostermeier has been a resident director and member of the artistic leadership of the Schaubühne since 1999. He graduated in directing from the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” and served as artistic director of the Baracke at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He has directed productions at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Edinburgh Festival, the Burgtheater in Vienna, and the Comédie-Française in Paris. In 2004, he became an associate artist of the Festival d’Avignon, where he regularly presents his work. He received the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale for lifetime achievement (2011), as well as several honors, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kythera Prize for Culture (both in 2018).

The Schaubühne is one of the most important German-language theaters and an international reference in contemporary theater-making. Founded in 1962 in Berlin and based since 1981 at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, it centers its work on a permanent ensemble of around 30 actors. Its repertoire brings together classics of world drama and works by contemporary authors, with more than one hundred world and German premieres in recent decades. Under the artistic direction of Thomas Ostermeier since 2009, the theater undertakes extensive international tours and organizes the FIND festival, dedicated to new dramaturgies and exchange among different theatrical traditions.