Fri 27 March 2026 | 19:30 *
Sat 28 March 2026 | 19:30
Sun 29 March 2026 | 15:30
* Introduction: half an hour before the start of each performance.
Bahngasse 27, 2700 Wiener Neustadt
approx. 2 hrs. 15 min. incl. 1 intermission
Normal price: € 45,- (Cat 1) | 38,- (Cat 2)
U25-Ticket: € 10,-
For further discounts see here
Due to the great demand and the inherent monstrosity of the play, there will be three more performances of “Alles Gerettet”, the existentially comic and tragically enlightening trial drama about the Ringtheater fire in December 1881 – definitely the last chance to experience this theatre evening!
» Every evening I did the same things. And the Lord always kept His hand over the theatre. Nobody could have known that He would let us Viennese down. «
On 8 December 1881, one of the greatest disasters of the monarchy occurs: the Ringtheater fire officially claims 384 lives, unofficially the number is far higher. In 1882, “all of Vienna” is in court be it as defendant or witness. The result is a touching, human world drama in which everyone from the ticket clerk to the theatre director, from the archduke to the fireman, tries to find the causes and bring the truth to light. The play offers sparkling dialogues and masterpieces of characterization as well as the desperate search for truth and justice on earth – and in Austria…
In 1963, the trial drama “Alles Gerettet” by Carl Merz and Helmut Qualtinger is broadcast as a TV play on Austrian national television. Then the ingenious text, which contains 40% original trial material and profound insights into human nature, disappears. Tragic, existentially comic, enlightening. It is thanks to the author duo’s theatrical writing that an abysmal spectacle emerges from a trial. The most difficult is given a floating lightness: the real trial poetically elevated as “Vienna’s last judgement”.
Acting: Ida Golda, Lukas Haas, Saskia Klar, Jens Ole Schmieder, Martin Schwanda, Isabella Wolf
Directed by: Anna Luca Krassnigg
Artistic collaboration: Ira Süssenbach
Scenic design: Andreas Lungenschmid
Costume design: Antoaneta Stereva Di Brolio
Make-up: Henriette Zwölfer
Music & Film: Christian Mair
Lighting design: Lukas Kaltenbäck
Assistant director: Julia Kampichler
Dramaturgy: Marie-Therese Handle-Pfeiffer
Text: Helmut Qualtinger & Carl Merz
Version: Wortwiege
Performance rights: Thomas Sessler Publishing House
A production by Wortwiege, funded by the state of Lower Austria and the city of Wiener Neustadt.
The Court of Justice:
President – Horst Schily
Public Prosecutor – Lena Rothstein
Attorney Dr. Fialla – Helmut Jasbar
Attorney Dr. Markbreiter – Franz Schuh
Secretary – Julia Kampichler
The defendants:
Heer – Lukas Haas
Breithofer – Ida Golda
Jauner – Isabella Wolf
Nitsche – Saskia Klar
Dr. Landsteiner – Jens Ole Schmieder
The witnesses:
Pawlik – Saskia Klar
Völkl – Jens Ole Schmieder
Schagerl – Lukas Haas
Nötel – Jens Ole Schmieder
Dalmonico – Saskia Klar
Dr. Ranninger – Jens Ole Schmieder
Schönach – Ida Golda
Lonsky – Isabella Wolf
Krichbaum – Lukas Haas
Frischauer – Ida Golda
Neswadba – Isabella Wolf
Klein – Saskia Klar
Dietl – Ida Golda
Winkler – Lukas Haas
Lamezan – Isabella Wolf
Hellmesberger – Lukas Haas, Ida Golda, Isabella Wolf, Saskia Klar
A spectator:
Hromatka – Martin Schwanda
Helmut Qualtinger
Born in 1928, the young Viennese was drafted as an anti-aircraft gunner towards the end of the war. He then began studying medicine and journalism, which he soon gave up in order to train as an actor as a guest student at the Max Reinhardt Seminar. Heimito von Doderer, a close friend of Qualtinger’s father, supported him in this endeavor. Qualtinger was soon working as a film and theater critic, but his first attempts to launch a career as an actor or playwright failed. His breakthrough came in 1951 with the new version of Schnitzler’s “Reigen”, which he brought to the stage together with his colleagues Merz, Kehlmann and Bronner. The quartet continued to work together successfully for a long time and published several sensational cabaret programs. The collaboration with Carl Merz in particular remained central to Qualtinger’s life. As an actor in film and theatre, author and cabaret artist, Qualtinger remains the epitome of the Viennese original, even after his death in 1986.
Carl Merz
Carl Merz, born in 1906 in Kronstadt, Romania, graduated from the Hochschule für Welthandel in Vienna in 1928. He then studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts and tried his hand at his first dramatic texts. In 1931, he was engaged as an actor, director and dramaturge at the Deutsches Staatstheater in Hanover. He soon returned to Vienna, where he took over the management of the cellar theatre “Der liebe Augustin” (later “Theater der Courage”) until its founder Stella Kadmon returned from exile in 1947. Here he met Qualtinger, Bronner and Kehlmann, among others, with whom he founded the “nameless ensemble” and wrote several successful cabaret programs(“Brettl vor’m Kopf”, “Hackl vor’m Kreuz”, etc.). Together with Qualtinger, he wrote plays such as “Der Herr Karl” (1961) and “Die Hinrichtung” (1965). The duo is also known for the Kurier column “Blattl vor’m Mund”, which appeared every Saturday from 1955, and the “Travnicek dialogues”. He also worked for TV and radio and wrote screenplays, short stories and novels. He took his own life in 1979 after suffering two serious strokes.
© Julia Kampichler
In conversation. Peter Roessler on Qualtinger and Merz, courageous actors and human behavior.
