+++ Study Information Days 2026 for many of our studies: all dates can be found in the event calendar! +++
On January 20 and 21, the Thomas Bernhard Institute, in cooperation with the Department of Scenography of the Mozarteum University, presented Philoktet by Heiner Müller, Gaia in a version by Till Ernecke and The Bacchae by Euripides, three directorial works on the theme of classical music at the Theater im KunstQuartier.
Directing works: CLASSIC
Director: Lea Oltmanns
Stage: Ella Hölldampf
Costume/Make-up: Iggi Bühler
Sound: Alexander Bauer
Dramaturgical assistance: Laura Bernhardt, classical philology advice: Sophia Ortner
With:
Dionysus: Payam Yazdani
Kadmos/Messenger: Alexander Smirzitz
Pentheus: Lena Plochberger
Messenger: Fayola Schönrock
Chorus of the Bacchae: Daryna Mavlenko, Mariia Soroka, Mariia Tkachenko, Daria Samoylenko, Anastasiia Shakirova, Marko Sonkin, Fayola Schönrock, Payam Yazdani
The team questions the speech act and construction of gender in Euripides' "Bacchae", as well as the ambivalence of fear of losing authority and the longing to unite with those oppressed by heteronormative bisexuality. What do we have to oppose the rule of the fathers? And who is willing to give up power?
Director: Till Ernecke
Stage/Costumes: Marina Calabrese
Dramaturgical assistance: Nico Lenz-Oberngruber
With: Valerie Martin, Jonin Herzig, Juliette Larat, Rachid Zinaldin
The war against Gaia is coming to a head. White silence announces the final round. Into the silence, questions are addressed to the oracle: What damage have we done? What can we do now?
Direction and music: Carla María Schmutter
Stage and costume: Lucas Bertin, Christina Winkler
With:
Philoctet: Martin Rudi
Neoptolemos: Mariusz Golec
"When I consider how general illness is, how tremendous the mental change it brings when the light of health fades, what deserts of the interior an attack of influenza brings before one's eyes, what abysses a rise in temperature reveals - when I consider all this, and I am so often compelled to do so, it seems truly strange that illness has not taken its place among the principal themes of the theatre." (after Virginia Woolf)
It is impossible to criticise an exploitative system when your brain is on fire with pain. This much-reduced Philoctet negotiates the personal: The story between a sufferer, and those dependent on him, who tries to deal with that suffering.
Central to this is the representation and untranslatability of pain. Why is it so difficult to have understanding and patience for people with chronic suffering? How can we find ways to communicate our pain?
A performance at the Thomas Bernhard Institute
Director: Paulo Jamil Sieweck
Stage design and set: Nogati Udayana
Acting and concept: Esther Berkel, Colin Johner, Adrian Weinek, Paulo Sieweck
Director: Henry Schlage
Stage and costume: Yoko Ann Idler
With:
Odysseus: Linda Kummer
Philoctet: Marie Eick-Kerssenbrock
Neoptolemos: Carl Herten
Spirits of the Dead: Odysseus, Neoptolemos, Philoctet, who, awakened from their sleep, must dreamwalk their way deeper and deeper into the bloody web of war. War on Troy, war between three people and three world views, war in their minds and bodies. The necessity of dehumanisation and the consequent tearing of souls.
"Spit out your compassion, it tastes of blood." (H. Müller)
Director: Giulia Giammona
Music: Johannes Broemmel
Set design: Marinus Halbing
Assistant Director: Sophia Nimak
With:
Sandra Julia Reils
Annalisa Hohl
Joseph Lang
I have only dreamed of these kings and battles /
And deeds of war only dreamt - they were /
Only shadows that passed me by
Director: Alek Niemiro
Stage/Costume: Laura Trilsam
Video: Alek Niemiro, Laura Trilsam
With:
Elisabeth: Imke Siebert
Mary Stuart: Victoria Kraft
Leicester: Ben Engelgeer
Wars end, camps retreat and once again there are only losers. The supposed winners now write the history. They decide the narrative. Who was just a follower, who is responsible and most importantly, who do you need. There is a division between the "good bad guys" and the "bad bad guys".
Mary Stuart is a play about power and dependencies. Two of history's greatest figures meet in a struggle for power, forgetting the human.
