Susanne Kennedy

Susanne Kennedy (1977) has received attention for a number of productions on which she had unleashed an innovative approach. She completed the director’s course in Amsterdam with a personal version of Maria Stuart (Top Naeff Award). In the Nationale Toneel, she mainly aimed to cover post modern authors such as Sarah Kane and Elfride Jelinek, and she brought forth a version of Kleine Eyolf by Ibsen, which received much attention. Johan Simons invited her as guest director with the Kammerspiele in München, where she recently directed the much discussed Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt.

In March 2014, Kennedy’s first performance with TA premiers: The Pelican, by August Strindberg. On Susanne Kennedy’s stage, the emphasis is not so much on story – and character development in the traditional sense. She creates a theatrical and strongly sensitive world in which the characters are often more like puppets than ‘real’ people. Emotions and character traits are expanded, in makeup and costume too, and the acting could be dubbed ‘unnatural’. Thus, emotions and actions that one deems normal are presented in an estranging and surprising manner. In her adaptations, Kennedy often selects a limited number of dialogues from the original text, which she deems to expose the core of the matter. She strives to achieve a style of theatre in which music, sound, makeup, costumes and movement bring forth the naked essence of a play.