What a festival! We are delighted about the palpable spark in the air, the numerous and active contributions from everyone in the wonderfully interlocking triangle of ensemble, passionately discussing guests and highly active audience. The merging of stage events and world events, the reflection of history in stories, the “bringing to the stage” of reality in an international dimension and the exchange were more infectious and currently more relevant than ever. Thanks to ALL who made it possible!
You can find our costumized festival shirts in our webshop. Free shipping from 40 € (2 shirts).
Our SALON on Sunday can be listened to as a podcast on all common podcast platforms after the festival.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal / Wortwiege
Classic Crime and the Art of Language Distilled from Wortwiege
Dates: 26.2. / 1.3. / 6.3. / 9.3. / 12.3. / 15.3. /20.3. / 23.3. / 26.3. / 29.3.
Helmut Qualtinger & Carl Merz / Wortwiege
The Suppressed Masterpiece about the Ringtheater Fire.
Dates: 5.3. / 11.3. / 13.3. / 16.3. /19.3. / 22.3. / 25.3. / 27.3. / 30.3.
Author Celebrations in Three Courses
The contemporary author’s theatre is alive!
With Alexandra Badea, Nico Dorigatti, Hannan Ishay & Ido Shaked, Mario Wurmitzer as well as Ira Süssenbach, Azelia Opak and their ensembles. In the SALON afterwards: Anna Luca Krassnigg and her guests.
Fridays 19:30 & Saturdays 15:30
The Defense of Socrates
Exquisite rhetoric: 70-year-old defendant Socrates (Horst Schily) courageously insists on the truth and defends himself from a corrupt judiciary with a spectacular speech.
Discussion guest: Irmgard Griss (7.3.) and Friedrich Forsthuber (30.3.)
7.3. / 30.3. each 19:30 h
Due to the high demand, an additional performance of REDEN! will take place on March 30.
From 26 February to 30 March 2025, Wortwiege devotes itself to dialogue, stage imagination and the richness of theatre forms, presenting the rediscovery of Qualtinger/Merz’ ALLES GERETTET, Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s ELEKTRA, the new series PLAY! with four thrilling plays and equally exciting contemporary theatre-makers, a special edition of REDEN!, the awarding of the Manès Sperber Prize and the thematically in-depth public SALONs with prominent guests.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE VALUE OF COURAGE AND COWARDICE?
Share your personal thoughts with us – a short statement, a few sentences – and send them to gewinnspiel@wortwiege.at by March 30, 2025.
The winners will be drawn from all entries and notified by e-mail.
The U25 tickets for visitors up to the age of 25 are made possible by a sponsorship from Wiener Neustädter Sparkasse. All PLAY! performances are now also available on Ticketgretchen, even with a discount for anyone under the age of 27.
We are happy to offer individual introductory talks and festival tours for groups of young people, schoolchildren and students. More …
“Courage, this old word, is back in conversation, adorning articles, emblazoned on facades. Serious, ironic, pathetic, rebellious. Let’s talk about it in the most diverse forms of theatre: There is plenty of good stage material! It clearly shows us that fine achievements such as democracy, peace, self-respect, indeed human communication worthy of the name, stand and fall with it. And that courage does not initially mean heroism, but literally “commitment of the heart”, ergo empathy.”
Heroism, drive: countless stories are about this. Here and now, we focus on the literal “use of the heart”…
“Courage means not being impressed by the headwind of majority opinions.”
The Wortwiege Festival brings a spectrum of content-rich and unconventional forms of theatre to life in the historic Kasematten Wiener Neustadt.
Under the artistic direction of Anna Luca Krassnigg, it combines gripping storytelling on stage with philosophical thinking in the contemporary salon. Theatre, literature, film, architecture, music and design merge in the impressive atmosphere of the historic fortified building.
The SEA CHANGE initiative promotes international in-house productions and guest performances as well as global partnerships.
Here you can find photos & videos of the last years
“Trust me, I’m telling you stories – I can change the story, I am the story…”
Jeanette Winterson
