“Europe in Scene” under the artistic direction of Anna Maria Krassnigg shows two theater productions in the Kasematten Wiener Neustadt by William Shakespeare: “Coriolanus” directed by Azelia Opak and Uwe Reichwaldt brings “Totentanz” by August Strindberg to the stage.
Under the motto “Think Power New”, the program explores “how structures of war, democracy, autocracy and traditional images of masculinity and rulership penetrate the private sphere, determine and shape where power can lead ideally and structurally,” it says on the Festival website.
In “Reden!”, actors (like Martin Schwanda, picture above) perform important historical and contemporary speeches. wortwiege director Anna Maria Krassnigg and experts then analyze the rhetorical works and their topicality with the participation of the audience.
Speeches That Made History: “Great Theater”
“Speeches that make history or move the public are almost always big theatres. Your argument is dramatic and therefore potentially persuasive. To explore this performative effect, which sometimes makes the difference, no one is better suited than actors,” say the organizers.
On five evenings, the “Reden!” series deals with the topics of war, deeds, corruption, Europe and peace. Two historical speeches are analyzed each time. On September 17, publicist Eric Frey discusses with Anna Maria Krassnigg, among other things, the Speech by Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the European Council on March 25, 2022.
A week later, journalist and theologian Renata Schmidtkunz reflects on the Sermon on the Mount. To match Cicero’s first speech once morest Catiline in 63 B.C. Chr. is on September 30 with former public prosecutor Walter Geyer and anti-corruption expert Martin Kreutner.
On October 7th, Erwin Proell, former governor, is a Alex Reed in the Kasematten. The program includes speeches by Winston Churchill and Emmanuel Macron. A week later, the journalist and politician Helmut Brandstätter is in Wiener Neustadt and deals with Bertha von Suttner’s speech “The Development of the Peace Movement”, which she gave in April 1906 on the occasion of the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize. “Political theater as an invitation to think further”, says Anna Maria Krassnigg regarding “Reden!”.
Impulse and dialogue in the “Salon Europa”
In the “Salon Europa” series of talks, theater maker Krassnigg and author and cultural scientist Wolfgang Müller-Funk discuss the two plays “Coriolanus” and “Totentanz” and their reference to the present in five matinees with guests from culture and science.
On September 18, for example, the philosopher Lisz Hirn, the publicist Rainer Nowak and the military historian Markus Reisner will sit on the podium at “Denk Macht Neu”. Each subsequent Sunday up to and including October 16th, there will be four evenings themed Power of the Genders, Power of Empires, Rulers, and Tyranny. Among those invited are the philosopher Franz Schuh, the literary scholar Liliane Weissberg, the contemporary historian Florian Bieber and the psychoanalyst Jurko Prochasko.
