were awarded the Actor Duo of the Year (Schauspielerpaar des Jahres) prize by the trade magazine theater heute in 1991 for the roles as Mr. Jay and Goldberg in Tabori's black comedy Die Goldberg-Variationen. The two actors had first played antagonists in classical drama, such as Shylock and Antonio, and Othello and Jago. The paper wrote: "Wie Shylock und Antonio, wie Othello und Jago sind auch Mr. Jay und Goldberg ein sadomasochistisches Männerpaar – eine Kombination wie Herr und Knecht, Vater und Sohn, Laurel und Hardy." (Like Shylock and Antonio, and Othello and Jago, Mr. Jay and Goldberg are also a sadomasochistic male couple, a combination like master and servant, father and son, and Laurel and Hardy.) The two later played together in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (2003), Beckett's Endspiel and Genet's Die Zofen. In 1992, Kirchner appeared as Macduff in Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Peymann. He performed solo programs such as Wilhelm Reich's Rede an den kleinen Mann and a series reciting Robert Walser's novels. In the 1992/93 season, Kirchner moved to the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where he played in Ostrovsky's Der Wald, staged by Thomas Langhoff, and Sosias in Kleist's , staged by Gosch. He then moved to the Hamburg Thalia Theater, appearing in 1995 as the Doctor in Schnitzler's directed by Flimm, in 1996 Zettel in Shakespeare's Ein Sommernachtstraum with director Jens-Daniel Herzog, and the title role of Molière's Tartuffe, again with Flimm. From 1997, Kirchner was back at the Burgtheater. He played in 1998 Clov in Beckett's Endspiel alongside Voss as Hamm, staged by Tabori in a production that was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen. For this performance Kirchner and Voss won again the award Actor Duo of the Year. In 1999 he appeared as Schigolch in Wedekind's Lulu, staged by . He played Solange in Die Zofen, directing himself with Voss and his wife Ursula Voss, and Dr. Dorn in Chekhov's Die Möwe with Luc Bondy, both in 2000. A year later, he appeared as Sandperger in Karl Schönherr's Glaube und Heimat with Martin Kušej, and a supervisor and a policeman in Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltès with Klaus Michael Grüber. In 2002, he appeared as Uta-Napishti in the premiere of Raoul Schrott's Gilgamesh with , and as Richard in the Austrian premiere of Thomas Bernhard's with Thomas Langhoff. He performed again solo programs such as Walser's Der Spaziergang and Bernhard's Der Stimmenimitator and