Arthur Schnitzler surgically strips away the masks of society in his Reigen, which had a scandalous premiere in Berlin in 1920 and was only performed again in 1982 due to a performance ban imposed by Schnitzler himself. With keen psychological insight, the author performs a literary anatomy of the soul – and this is exactly what Yana Ross does in her work as a director. For her latest production, a group of internationally celebrated writers have updated Reigen with a contemporary spin: Lydia Haider, Sofi Oksanen, Leïla Slimani, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Leif Randt, Mikhail Durnenkov, Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, Kata Wéber, Jonas Hassen Khemiri and Lukas Bärfuss have each rewritten one of the ten scenes.

Schnitzler’s Reigen depicts a kaleidoscopic world of sexual intimacy in which archetypical figures from Viennese society are secretly connected by norm-defying dalliances that transcend class, gender and age. Yana Ross goes in search of today’s taboos and deceptive masks, uniting the ten overwritten scenes in a polyphonic staging attuned to our zeitgeist.

Laura Paetau