“Words live longer than deeds.”

© SF / Monika Rittershaus

Bettina Hering, the Salzburg Festival’s director of drama, on readings and evenings of “Investigations”.

This year, the readings allow the audience to get to know artists such as Max Reinhardt, Max Frisch, Ingeborg Bachmann, Jean-Paul Sartre and Bert Brecht through their letters and personal writings. Are you expecting any surprises?
The readings have a clear concept: on the one hand, there are three sets of correspondence, which I am presenting with the idea that here are three 20th-century couples with a strong influence on theatre – Max Reinhardt and Helene Thimig –, literature – Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch –, and philosophy – Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. In very different circumstances, in different phases of their lives, over shorter or longer periods of time. Through happy, tragic, passionate, desperate, amusing and reflective moments. These three correspondences are read by three generations of actresses and actors who were and are currently essential for film and theatre; some of them played major roles at the Salzburg Festival, also during my tenure as director of drama. These are Edith Clever and Tobias Moretti, Lina Beckmann and Charly Hübner, and Paula Beer and Albrecht Schuch. We learn new, unheard-of, surprising things about the iconic artists whose letters are being read – this will expand our view of their output and inform us about their times and the circumstances of their lives. There are aspects which show these exceptionally innovative personalities in their private lives – both how they lived day-to-day, but also from a critical point of view.
The evening Angela Winkler presents with the delian::quartet is totally different. Bertolt Brecht’s literary texts shine on their own and jive perfectly with the music. Nothing could better complement our production of Der kaukasische Kreidekreis performed by Theater HORA.

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir is presented in a marathon reading – what makes such a format attractive to you?
On the one hand, this marathon reading resulted directly from the programme of readings, which concludes with Sartre and Beauvoir. Beauvoir’s unique, seminal work The Second Sex, a kind of definition, or positioning, of women in 1949, is a must-hear. And it must be heard today, so that we in turn can define and position ourselves: how far have we come, have we even achieved anything? A marathon reading gives the audience a chance to take its time, to truly engage with a text which one might not want to read on one’s own. And in this case, 14 wonderful women are reading, all of whom have been companions to the Festival and me: what could be better?