One of your great champions in New York was the producer Scott Rudin, who stepped back in 2021 after accusations of bullying. You haven’t had a show on Broadway since Covid closed your revival of “West Side Story” in March 2020, less than a month after it opened. Are we going to see you back there?
Since my 20s, when I went for the first time, I have had a deep connection with New York. I love the spirit of New York. I love the people. I love also the challenges. I always felt good when I produced in New York, I felt that I connected somehow with the city. It happens now that I work more in London because a lot of producers want to produce in London, see how it goes and then move it, because of expense. I can come tomorrow with a relevant production, a very good producer, a great text or whatever. And of course I did two operas at the Met last year, so I’m still there.
One of your trademarks is adapting movies for the stage: “The Damned,” “Scenes From a Marriage,” “Network” — the list goes on. Why don’t you direct new plays that are not based on movies or books?
When I was young I did Botho Strauss, Marguerite Duras — but you are right: That never has been the most important thing for me. I only do a play when I think, “Well, I really understand what’s there and I can bring it out in a way that perhaps people haven’t seen yet.” That’s why I did “The Crucible,” “A View From the Bridge,” things like that. Movie scripts became my new plays. The challenge is enormous: Nobody has done it before you so you have to think, “How am I going to bring this to the stage?” Whereas when I do a “Crucible,” you can do research and find hundreds of interpretations.
Even with a tighter budget than some previous editions, the Ruhrtriennale is still a wide-open canvas for an artistic director. What excites you about your stint there?
I’m famous for my theater and opera productions but now I can program dance, music. And I can work with directors that I would never have invited in the theater where I was artistic director before. I’m also at the point in my artistic life, and my life, where it’s very important that I keep going on. When I did the Holland Festival, I saw between 100 and 150 productions a year outside of Belgium and Holland and I got in touch with a lot of people. I was with John Zorn, Bang on a Can, Gail Zappa. It gave me new inspiration to go on as a director, because I have seen so many things, talked to so many people. As artists, you’re not isolated in the world. On the contrary, you’re totally connected.
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