Marlen Duken
Costume Designer
© Jacopo Asam
Born in Leer (Ostfriesland), Marlen Duken studied costume design at the University for Applied Arts in Hamburg under Reinhard von der Thannen before studying stage design at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna with Bernhard Kleber, graduating with distinction. She was awarded a scholarship by Germany's National Academic Foundation and is one of the Akademie Musiktheater Heute's scholarship holders. She gained early experience on productions including Hans Neuenfel's Pique Dame at the Salzburg Festival. Her costumes were seen in Zwiegespräch at the Burgtheater in Vienna (invited to the 2023 Theatertreffen, a big honour), Elektra at the Berlin Ensemble (nominated for Costume Designer of the Year 2021 by critics from Theater heute magazine) and Medea at the Kampnagel in Hamburg (dir: Rieke Süßkow). She designed the set and costumes for Die Puppe, a project with Wien Modern dir: Kristine Tornquist). As part of the hallimasch komplex collective, whose work is seen at international festivals, she designed set and costumes for a participatory production of - mushed rooms (Schauspielhaus Vienna). She's working at Oper Frankfurt for the first time, on this new production of Harrison Birtwistle's Punch and Judy in the Bockenheimer Depot. Her artistic is to create a playful language of colour and form, revealing the essence of a figure or material through exaggeration and aestheticism - searching for truth in the artificial.