Swiss Theatre Director Werner Düggelin Dies at Age 90

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Swiss theatre director Werner Düggelin has died at age 90.

Duggelin studied German at the University of Zurich before beginning his career has a theatre director in Paris. He initially worked as a lighting technician, but he got his first directorial work in Zurich in 1956 with Molière's "The Imaginary Sick."

One notable production was in 1963, when he staged Pinkas Braun's German language version of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at Hamburg.

After 1975 Düggelin worked on a freelance basis, regularly returning to work in Zürich and Basel. For three years, between 1988 and 1991, he ran the Swiss Cultural Centre in Paris which had been set up in 1985.

Later productions included Beckett's "Endgame" (1994) and Molière's "The Misanthrope" (1997), both at Zurich.

In 1995, he was awarded the city of Basel's culture prize. Zurich also awarded him with the city's art prize in 2014.

Duggelin's last work for Zurich was Büchner's "Lenz" in the 2018/2019 season.

In addition to his stage work, Duggelin was also known for work on television, with work on "L'Histoire du soldat" (1975) by Ramuz, "The Black Spider" (1986) by Gotthelf and a "Hommage to Tinguely" (1989).

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