Benny Claessens

Biography

Benny Claessens studied at the Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp. Starting in 2003 he worked at Toneelhuis in Antwerp under the artistic direction of Luk Perceval as well as in co-productions with the Vienna Festival and in “Turista” at the Schaubühne in Berlin. In 2006 he founded the group EISBÄR, whose performances have been shown in Holland and Belgium. For his role in “Ritter, Dene, Voss” Claessens received the Arlecchino Award in Amsterdam in 2009. At the same time he was developing his own works. From 2010 to 2015 he worked as ensemble member of the Munich Kammerspiele and took part in Johan Simon’s premiere of Elfriede Jelinek’s “The Street. The City. The Ambush” and René Pollesch’s “Eure ganz großen Themen sind weg”, both in 2012. During this time he also conceived the production “Spectacular Lightshows”, in which he performed, and he realized “Much Dance” with Jan Decorte. In the same year his performance “Hello useless” was created for Campo, and then in 2016 “Learning how to walk” at the NTGent. In 2017 he began collaborating with Ersan Mondtag on “Oedipus and Antigone” after Sophocles at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. At the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Benny Claessens acted in the premiere of Elfriede Jelinek’s “On the Royal Road” (“Am Königsweg”, director: Falk Richter) for which he received the Alfred Kerr acting award.

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