27 July 2022

Akademie der Künste acquires the Evelyn Fuchs archive

The Akademie der Künste has acquired the artistic estate of the actress and theatre director Evelyn Fuchs, who died in Vienna in 2011.
Born in Weimar in 1957, the artist had her first engagement at the Kleist Theatre in Frankfurt (Oder) at the end of the 1970s after studying at the Rostock Drama School. From 1985, she acted as a freelance actress at several East German theatres before moving to Vienna in 1987.

Influenced by Ruth Berghaus, whose working methods she had got to know during a guest residency in Graz, she began directing alongside acting. In 1994 she founded the Ariadne Theatre, with which she staged numerous productions of her own and co-productions until 2010, especially at the Kosmos Theatre in Vienna. Several of her productions were awarded prizes by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture, including Fremdkörper by Andreas Staudinger in 2001, Flügel:Schlagen, a collage of texts by Heiner Müller in 2006, and Die Kraft einer Hölle after Clarice Lispector in 2008.

In the final years of her life, she appeared as an actress in productions by Andreas Hutter in Vienna and Bregenz, among others: in 2005 in Bambiland by Elfriede Jelinek, in 2006 in Verkommenes Ufer. Medeamaterial by Heiner Müller and in 2010 in the performance Und keine Hand. Zeit, Mörderin, alterslose also by Heiner Müller.
In an uncompromising manner, Evelyn Fuchs sought to counter pure entertainment theatre with her portrayal of individuals on the borderlines of existence. She devoted herself in particular to female characters – from the Antigone of ancient theatre to the fate of Eastern European forced prostitutes in the play Russenhuhn by Dimitré Dinev based on the Trojan Women by Euripides.
The archive contains director's books, production documents for her own play adaptations, and stage manuscripts, programme booklets and reviews. In addition, there are role books, reviews, theatre photos, audiovisual documents and correspondence. The collection comprises approximately 4 running metres of shelves.

Enquiries: Stephan Dörschel, Performing Arts Archive of the Akademie der Künste, Tel. +49 (0)30 200 57-32 54, doerschel@adk.de