U30 Preview: Get ready for Ruhrtriennale 2026
9.7.2026Are you under 30 and curious about the Ruhrtriennale? Then the U30 Preview is your invitation to get to know the festival.
The Ruhrtriennale is the festival of the arts in the Ruhr area. Every year, it transforms former industrial sites into unique venues for musical theatre, theatre, dance, performance art, concerts and visual arts. International artists develop productions here that are created specifically for these extraordinary spaces or that allow them to be experienced in new ways.
With the U30 Preview, you have the chance to come and see the two productions Rebel Rebel and Deutscher Herbst whilst they’re still in rehearsal – even before they have their premieres. Thanks to the support of the Association of Friends and Patrons of the Ruhrtriennale, 100 tickets are available for each of the two dates for young people under 30.
Rebel Rebel
Ivo Van Hove opens his final season as artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale with Rebel Rebel. The world premiere, featuring music by David Bowie, is set in a violent society where intimate relationships are forbidden, and isolation is mandated by law. A young couple defies this repressive system and creates their own utopia. Musical theatre, drama and choreography come together to form an intense festival opening about love, freedom and resistance.
Dress rehearsal on Wednesday, 19 August 2026, 8.30 pm, Jahrhunderthalle Bochum
Deutscher Herbst
In the fall of 1946, the young Swedish author Stig Dagerman travels through devastated Germany. In his literary travelogue Deutscher Herbst, he probes Berlin, Hamburg, and the Ruhr region – places marked by hunger, ruins, and exhaustion. Exactly 80 years later, a human lifetime, the celebrated director Christopher Rüping revisits this perspective. Together with the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater Berlin, he explores what freedom means when a society must start anew after violence, guilt and destruction. Join us for a preview of the world premiere at the Ruhrtriennale 2026, ahead of its official premiere.
Final dress rehearsal on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, 8 pm, Jahrhunderthalle Bochum
Good to know
- The U30 Preview is open to people under the age of 30.
- There are 100 free tickets available for each of the two public rehearsals.
- Thanks to the support of the Association of Friends and Patrons of the Ruhrtriennale, admission is free.
- You can sign up for one ticket at a time using the registration form.
- Please bring proof of age with you to the event, such as your identity card, passport or driving licence.
- Tickets are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.