Please note: this is a spoken theatre performance, not an opera or musical.

Jedermann (‘Everyman’), the founding play of the Salzburg Festival, is a unique phenomenon in the landscape of German-speaking theatre. An incomparable array of actors have performed Jedermann over the years – a work which has become a central part of the festival’s history since the its premiere in 1920 – and remains an annual highlight. In this production by Michael Sturminger, Lars Eidinger plays the rich bon viveur Jedermann with Verena Altenberger as his lover Buhlschaft. They interpret their roles in a highly energetic and modern way in front of the impressive backdrop of Salzburg Cathedral.

A bank clerk bludgeons a janitor to death: with no reason, no motive, just like that. This murderer and his “senseless” deed totally derail the general prosecutor whose job it is to bring the charge. In a mad rush, he leaves his well-ordered existence and becomes an axe-wielding murderer, initiating a bloody movement against the socio-political status quo. Stefan Bachmann stages Frisch’s drama as a highly musical nightmarish trip with powerful imagery, giving full scope to the suggestive power of the theatre.

Please note: this is a recording of spoken theatre, not an opera or musical.

Anna Gmeyner's play "Automat" dates from 1932 and was inspired by the technological innovations of her age as well as by the reactionary attitudes of the bourgeoisie. The provinicalist Adam saves the beautiful stranger Eva from suicide by drowning and takes her along to the "Automatenbüfett", the restaurant owned by his feisty wife. Eva's arrival is an attraction to this largely male community and the shrewd Adam knows how to use it to further his plans. Barbara Frey and Martin Zehetgruber had designed the eponymous outomat, which provides a looming backdrop to sometimes cringeworthily funny and sometimes heartrendingly sad encounters between the outstanding cast. The play proved a draw in major theatres in Hamburg, Berlin and Zurich before its author was forced to flee in the face of persecution by the National Socialists. This production is a true rediscovery.

Director Claudia Bauer and her enthusiastic cast translate PeterLicht’s radical rewriting of Molière’s “Tartuffe” into fast-paced comedy. In its colourful pop outfit, betrayal shines all the brighter and our present times are firmly in their sights. The seemingly pious and virtuous Tartuffe deeply impresses the wealthy Orgon and unsettles his entire family, until he is gradually caught in dishonest intentions. So far the story as told by Molière. In his radical retelling, PeterLicht takes up central motifs of the work, taking aim at our present times in the process. “A outrageous exuberant, thoroughly Pop-trendy Molière-transcription of the Cologne music writer PeterLicht. Completely unhinged and inspired." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung )“This Tartuffe is so super! Pure nonsense. A philosophy parody – surely destined to become a cult work.” (Deutschlandfunk)