The drama program for 2010 has two areas of focus, which combine various programmatic lines and play off the two main topics of the overall program.
Oedipus at Colonus – Phädra – Death in Thebes
On the one hand, the 2010 Festival has “Myths” as its overall central topic. This is reflected in the drama program in three productions – first of all, in Peter Stein’s production of Oedipus at Colonus with Klaus Maria Brandauer as Oedipus. For his return to drama directing, Peter Stein developed his own translation of Sophocles’ play. The sets will be designed by Ferdinand Wögerbauer, the costumes by Moidele Bickel.
republic will see the German-language premiere of Jon Fosse’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus trilogy, entitled Death in Thebes, as part of the Young Directors Project. Angela Richter will direct with sets by Katrin Brack, who won the Nestroy Theater Prize for her last Salzburg production (Moliere. Eine Passion).
At the Landestheater, Matthias Hartmann directs Racine’s Phaedra with Sunnyi Melles in the title role. The sets will be designed by Johannes Schütz, familiar from his work on Jürgen Gosch’s Seagull during the past year. Reflecting the topic of “Myths”, Senta Berger will read from Claudio Magris’ Orpheus-and-Eurydice paraphrase Verstehen Sie mich bitte recht at the Landestheater.
Angst (Fear) – Widerstand der Wirklichkeit (Resistance of Reality) – Reinhardt’s Midsummer Night’s Dream
Another main focus is the exploration of Austria reality in the 90th year of the Festival. Again, three plays make reference to this theme: the first is Jossi Wieler’s production of an adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s novella Angst (Fear) at the Landestheater – the first time the Festival’s drama program pays reverence to this great writer who made Salzburg his home for some years. André Jung plays alongside the Dutch actress Elsie de Brauw as well as Katja Bürkle and Stefan Hunstein. The adaption of Zweig’s novella is by Koen Tachelet, who recently caused a great stir with his dramatization of Joseph Roth’s novel Hiob at the Kammerspiele in Munich. Anja Rabes designs the sets and costumes.
Widerstand der Wirklichkeit (Resistance of Reality) is another, largely unknown novella from Stefan Zweig’s literary estate, which Klaus Maria Brandauer will present in a reading at the Landestheater.
During its anniversary season, the Festival not only commemorates its founder Max Reinhardt with the great Festival exhibit, but also by an invitation to visit his palace at Leopoldskron: guests will find a Midsummer Night’s Dream picnic feast for the senses in its spacious park, and the play itself performed both live by Mozarteum students and as an open-air screening of the original and famous Max Reinhardt film version.
Claudio Magris – Views of Inner Austria
Another focus on Austria is presented by the Poets in Residence series with Claudio Magris, who will discuss the fall of the Danube monarchy with the German historian Karl Schlögel in an event entitled The World Empire of Melancholia and will talk to the musician Hubert von Goisern about both their voyages along the Danube.
Three films and three cities form the points of departure for an observation of three turning points in Austrian history, presented by the series Views of Inner Austria. How did the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 affect the social climate in the city of Vienna? Claudio Magris will discuss this with film-maker Götz Spielmann and author Michael Stavaric.
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