Daniel Mezger | Research Trip

Theatre

Born 1978, grew up in the Swiss mountains. He studied acting at the Berne University of Music and Theatre and worked several years at the theatres in Göttingen, Germany. Since 2004 he lives and works as a writer, actor and musician in Zurich. He studied at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel where he now works as a guest lecturer. And he is the singer of the band “A Bang and a Whimper”.

Daniel Mezger made a name for himself as a playwright; his theatre pieces were invited to various festivals and got staged in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Argentina. He had been nominated by “Theater heute” as upcoming playwright of the year and won the prize of the Swiss Society of Authors. He’s play “Balkanmusik” got invited to the Playwrights’ Festival of the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

With an excerpt from his first novel “Land Spielen” (Playing Countryside) he was invited to the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2010. The novel was published in 2012. It was critically acclaimed and awarded with the Werkjahr-Prize of the City of Zurich.

Since 2014 he works with Marie Bues and Dennis Schwabenland on their “Trilogy of Freedom”. Part one („Als ich einmal tot war und Martin L. Gore mich nicht besuchen kam“) and two („Edward Snowden steht hinterm Fenster und weckt Birnen ein“) have been staged in Bern, Stuttgart and Zurich and many other cities in Switzerland and Germany and the plays are still touring.

Mezger’s second novel „Alles außer ich” (Everything but me) will be published in May 2019.