Dear audience,

the programme of the Ruhrtriennale 2023 is online! In the former industrial halls of the cities of Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen, the Festival of the Arts invites you to artistic discoveries from 10 August – 23 September. This year's Ruhrtriennale with 13 inhouse and co-productions, five world premieres, one European premiere and eight German premieres is the third and final edition of artistic director Barbara Frey.

The Festival of the Arts begins with the opening premiere of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream on 10 August in the Kraftzentrale of the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Once again in collaboration with the Burgtheater Wien, Barbara Frey explores the play's playful potential and questions its presentness.

From 11 August, the Siemens Music Prize winner Georges Aperghis, together with the writer Jean-Christophe Bailly and five musicians, will premiere Die Erdfabrik, a playful and serious homage to the power of the human imagination. The second music theatre production of this year's Ruhrtriennale is also eagerly awaited: Dostoevsky's Notes from a House of the Dead served Leoš Janáček as a model for his last opera From a House of the Dead (Aus einem Totenhaus), which star director and stage designer Dmitri Tcherniakov will stage as a walk-in installation in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum from 31 August.

In the Mischanlage of the Zeche Zollverein, Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Cellar Hole (Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch), a rousing monologue by actress Nina Hoss, will be Barbara Frey's last premiere as artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale from 20 September.

Ticket sales have just begun. An early-bird discount of 15% on all tickets is available until 4 June. We hope you enjoy discovering the programme.