John von Düffel, born in Göttingen in 1966, grew up in Londonderry, Ireland, Vermillion, South Dakota, USA, and various German cities, among other places. He studied philosophy, economics and German in Stirling, Scotland and in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he completed his doctorate in 1989 with a thesis on epistemology. He then worked as a theater critic. Since 1991, he has been working as an author and dramaturg, first at the Theater der Altmark in Stendal (1991 to 1993), then at the Oldenburg State Theater (1993 to 1996), Theater Basel (1996 to 1998), Schauspiel Bonn (1998 to 2000), Thalia Theater Hamburg (2000 to 2009) and at the Deutsches Theater Berlin (2009 to 2023). After guest and poetry professorships at several universities, he has been a professor of scenic writing at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2014. In the fall of 2025, he will take over as artistic director of the ETA Hoffmann Theater in Bamberg. In addition to plays and adaptations, John von Düffel has also published novels, essays, radio plays and translations.