Stage director Werner Düggelin dies aged 90

Düggelin, pictured in Zurich in 1981. Keystone / Str

The Swiss theatre director Werner Düggelin, who brought the Parisian avant-garde to Zurich in the 1950s and 1960s, died on Thursday night.

Düggelin, described on Friday as a “Swiss theatre legend” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, abandoned his university studies after an experience in a Zurich theatre had convinced him of his future in the arts – not as an actor, but as a director.

At 23, he founded his first company in Paris, a city where he explored the avant-garde scene that had developed after the Second World War.

He got to know figures like playwright Eugène Ionesco and Roger Blin, the French director who staged the first performance of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in 1953 – a play which Düggelin brought back to Zurich the following year.

Having translated the text himself into German, however (before even the English-language premier had been held) Düggelin’s efforts proved too avant-garde for Swiss tastes, and the play was judged “miserable”.

He achieved more success later, especially during a stint (1968-1975) at Theatre Basel, where he gave many new Swiss playwrights a chance, and didn’t shy from controversial artistic choices.

Düggelin later worked as an independent direct in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, winning various prestigious prizes including city awards from Basel and Zurich.