Rieke Süßkow
Rieke Süßkow, born in 1990 in Berlin, studied theater, film, and media studies in Vienna as well as directing at the Theaterakademie Hamburg and was a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. Her productions are characterized by a precise formal language and close collaboration with a fixed artistic team — including set designer Mirjam Stängl, costume designer Sabrina Bosshard, and composer Philipp C. Mayer.
Süßkow’s works have been shown at venues such as the Berliner Ensemble, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Staatstheater Mainz, Schauspielhaus Wien, and Burgtheater Wien, and invited to numerous festivals — including «Radikal Jung», the Heidelberger Stückemarkt, the Prague Theater Festival for the German Language, and the Festival for International Alternative Theatre FIAT Montenegro, where she received the prize for best direction. Her world premiere of Kevin Rittberger’s «IKI.radikalmensch» at Theater Osnabrück was invited to the Mülheimer Theatertage in 2020. For «Oxytocin, Baby» by Anna Neata at Schauspielhaus Wien, she received the Nestroy Prize in 2022 in the category «Bester weiblicher Nachwuchs».
With her productions «Zwiegespräch» by Peter Handke at the Burgtheater Wien and «Übergewicht, unwichtig: Unform» by Werner Schwab at Staatstheater Nürnberg, she was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen in 2023 and 2024. The trade magazine Theater heute named her Nachwuchsregisseurin des Jahres 2023.
Süßkow is co-founder of the independent collective «Hallimasch-Komplex». Starting in the 2025/2026 season, she will be resident director at the Wiener Volkstheater.
In the 2025/2026 season, she will direct «Bernarda Albas Haus» by Federico García Lorca.
In der Spielzeit 2025/2026 inszeniert sie «Bernarda Albas Haus» von Federico García Lorca.
Productions
For her first production at the Residenztheater, the director Rieke Süßkow, renowned for the thoroughly composed aesthetic of her work, has chosen the last drama of the great Spanish writer Federico García Lorca. Its protagonist Bernarda Alba is a widow who declares eight years of mourning after the death of her husband and turns her house into a form of prison for her five daughters while unquestioningly accepting the patriarchal system of provincial Spain.
Bernarda Albas Haus (Bernarda Alba's House)