Ran Chai Bar-Zvi (GER/ISR)
Extras / Video / Costume / Authors / Theater / Directors / Theater
is a theater director and writer as well as a set and costume designer.
Born in Jerusalem in 1989, he studied costume and stage design at the Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Art. This was followed by work with and for Rimini Protokoll, Schauspielhaus Dresden, Ruhrtriennale, Heimathafen Neukölln, Glanz & Krawall and Munich Volkstheater, among others.
His video works with the artists Doireann O’Malley and Michael Portnoy were shown at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and at the Steirischer Herbst art festival.
As director and writer, he created DARK ROOM at Schauspiel Hannover, followed by his adaptation of the acclaimed novel DAS WIRKLICHE LEBEN by Adeline Dieudonné. Subsequent productions for the Stages of the City of Cologne, Staatstheater Mainz and Volkstheater Munich (DAS GROSSE HEFT after Ágota Kristóf; invited to “radikal jung” festival in Munich, 2024). In April 2024, Ran Chai Bar-zvi’s first opera production ZAÏDME/ADAMA based on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Chaya Czernowin premiered at the Stadttheater Aachen.
In 2024 and 2025 Ran Chai Bar-zvi worked at Theater Münster, Volkstheater Munich, Schauspiel Frankfurt as well as Thalia Theater in Hamburg. He wrote and staged his solo piece FOMO at Volkstheater in Vienna, which premiered in early 2026.
AWARDS
2024 – Kurt-Hübner Directing Prize
Selected direction projects
FOMO. Liebeserklärung an die Angst unserer Zeit ("Declaration of love to the fear of our times") by Ran Chai Bar-zvi
2026
Premiere: Volkstheater Wien
Written by Ran Chai Bar-zvi
Director & Stage Design: Ran Chai Bar-zvi
Video art: Adam Kaplan
FOMO – “fear of missing out” – is a phenomenon of our time, which is characterized by constant pressure to optimize and increase productivity. Am I missing out on something? Isn’t the life of others, as I constantly see it, much more exciting, productive, simply better than mine? What else do I need to do? Why am I not part of it? Am I not interesting enough?
In his first work in Austria, author, director, and stage designer Ran Chai Bar-zvi uses tongue-in-cheek humor to declare his love for an omnipresent feeling and transfer it to the theater: from the Dunkelkammer, he lets us peek with fascinated concern at the big stage, the beating heart of the Volkstheater. But perhaps the real jewel is to be found in the small Avenue after all?
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY based on the novel by Oscar Wilde
December 2025
Premiere: Schauspiel Frankfurt
THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY
based on the novel by Oscar Wilde
translated from the English by Eike Schönfeld
adapted for the stage by Ran Chai Bar-zvi and Lukas Schmelmer
with a commentary by Marcus Peter Tesch (world premiere)
Thanks to the visually striking staging by Israeli director Ran Chai Bar-zvi and playwright Marcus Peter Tesch’s adaptation of the work to the present day, it was a touching evening. […] All in all, a theatrical evening that […] counteracts widespread superficiality and offers captivating depth. This was achieved […] through great intensity in the acting as well as sophisticated visual concepts. – Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung
“an aesthetically powerful and scenically compelling adaptation” – Frankfurt Neue Presse
“an impressive queer drama” / “brilliant in terms of acting, concept, and rhythm […]” – die-deutsche-buehne.de
FROMMER TANZ. ABENTEUER EINER JUGEND (THE PIOUS DANCE. THE ADVENTURE STORY OF A YOUNG MAN) adapted from the novel by Klaus Mann
September 2025
Premiere: Thalia Theater Hamburg
CALIGULA by Albert Camus
January 2025
Premiere: Volkstheater Munich
LIEBES ARSCHLOCH (orig.: “Cher connard”) by Virginie Despentes
September 2024
Premiere: Theater Münster
LIEBES ARSCHLOCH (orig.: “Cher connard”) by Virginie Despentes
Stage adoptation: Victoria Weich
Direction, set design, costume: Ran Chai Bar-zvi
at Theater Münster
Ran Chai Bar-zvi stages Virginie Despentes’ cult novel about online hatred, consequences of a sexual assault and claims against class in the cultural bubble of modern France.
ZAÏDME/ADAMA by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Chaya Czernowin
April 2024
Premiere: Stadttheater Aachen
ZAÏDE/ADAMA
Fragments by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Chaya Czernowin
Director and stage design: Ran Chai Bar-zvi
at the Stadttheater Aachen
Ran Chai Bar-zvi brings ZAÏDE/ADAMA to the stage against the backdrop of a conflict that has taken on a cruel dynamic since October 7, 2023. ZAÏDE/ADAMA is Bar-zvi’s first opera production where the chorus of citizens of the city of Aachen plays a decisive role as a symbol of collective self-empowerment.
JUPITER BRÜLLT (JUPITER ROARS) by Annika Henrich
February 2024
Premiere: Staatstheater Mainz
BLUTBUCH (BLOOD BOOK), adapted from the novel by Kim de L'Horizon
December 2023
Premiere: Schauspiel Hannover
DAS GROSSE HEFT (THE BIG BOOKLET), adapted from the novel by Ágota Kristóf
October 2023
Premiere: Volkstheater Munich
DAS WIRKLICHE LEBEN (THE TRUE LIFE), adapted from the novel by Adeline Dieudonné
2021
Premiere: Schauspiel Hannover
DARK ROOM
2020
Premiere: Schauspiel Hannover