Reichenau Festival

“It’s like a class reunion on the Rax!”

Reichenau director Maria Happel (pictured with Julia Stemberger, left, and Maria Köstlinger, right) presented the 2025 festival season(Bild: Lalo Jodlbauer)

With her new Reichenau Festival program, director Maria Happel breaks with old conventions and focuses on "the full range and diversity of stage art". 

"It's like a class reunion here," everyone agreed at the presentation of the new Reichenau program, to which Maria Happel invited journalists and her entire festival team to the Vienna Theatermuseum yesterday. The lively principal can look back on an extremely successful summer of performances: More than 30,000 tickets sold for over 100 performances and an occupancy rate of 92 percent - with a strong upward trend:

The actors and directors of the Reichenau Festival 2025 at the program presentation in the Vienna Theatre Museum(Bild: Lalo Jodlbauer)

This year, the Südbahnhotel will be another venue and 9,000 additional tickets will be issued: "For the first time, Shakespeare will be performed at the festival," enthuses Happel, who sees the historic ambience of the former grand hotel as the ideal stage for "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Director Alexandra Liedtke ("Job") and actor Gregor Schulz ("Job")(Bild: Lalo Jodlbauer)

Paula Nocker ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and Claudius von Stolzmann ("Arsenic and Lace")(Bild: Lalo Jodlbauer)

Therese Affolter (left) and Elisabeth Augustin play "Arsenic and Lace Hood" under Roland Koch's direction (right).(Bild: Lalo Jodlbauer)

Philipp Hauß (top left) directs "God of Carnage" with Juergen Maurer and Köstlinger - fashion designer Atıl Kutoğlu (ga. right) designs the costumes for Yamina Reza's stage hit.(Bild: Stefan Weinberger)

"Fairies and elves from all generations of actors, from Sebastian Wendelin to Paul Basonga and Martin Schwab, will cavort here and whisk the audience away into a magical dream world," says Happel. The first performance of Joseph Roth's "Job" is another premiere, with director Alexandra Liedtke's main aim being to "bring the novel to life".

Reichenau Highlights 2025

Joseph Roth

Hiob

Regie und Spielfassung: Alexandra Liedtke

mit: Joseph Lorenz, Julia Stemberger, Katharina Lorenz, Alex Kapl, Gregor Schulz, Wolfgang Hübsch

Premiere: Mittwoch, 2. Juli, 19.30 Uhr

Ort: Theater Reichenau – Neuer Spielraum

Joseph Kesselring

Arsen und Spitzenhäubchen

Regie: Roland Koch

mit: Therese Affolter, Elisabeth Augustin, Elias Eilinghoff, Claudius von Stolzmann, Stefan Jürgens, Dirk Nocker, Rainer Friedrichsen, Niko Lukic, Paula Nocker, Nicolaus Hagg, C.C. Weinberger

Premiere: Donnerstag, 3. Juli, 19.30 Uhr

Ort: Theater Reichenau – Großer Saal

William Shakespeare

Ein Sommernachtstraum

Regie: Maria Happel

mit Paul Basonga, Ludwig Blochberger, Florian Carove, Johannes Deckenbach, Laura Dittmann, Melanie Hackl, Martin Schwab, Jakob Semotan, Sebastian Wendelin, Pia Zimmermann, u. a.

Premiere: Freitag. 4. Juli, 18.30 Uhr

Ort: Südbahnhotel Semmering

Yasmina Reza

Der Gott des Gemetzels 

Regie: Philipp Hauß

mit: Maria Köstlinger, Juergen Maurer, Lilith Häßle, Tim Werths

Premiere: Samstag, 5. Juli, 19.30 Uhr

Ort: Theater Reichenau – Großer Saal

Heimito von Doderer

Die Wasserfälle von Slunj

Dramatisierung: Nicolaus Hagg

Regie: Beverly Blankenship

mit: Daniel Jesch, Emese Fay, Skye MacDonald, Johanna Mahaffy, Sona MacDonald, Markus Freistätter, David Oberkogler, Rafael Schuchter, Günter Franzmeier, Johanna Arrouas, Bettina Schwarz

Premiere: Sonntag, 6. Juli, 15. 30 Uhr

Ort: Theater Reichenau – Neuer Spielraum

With five in-house productions and a children's project in just six days ("No festival in Europe can do that"), Happel dares to break with the traditional Schnitzler-Nestroy dogma and plants a contemporary motto at the foot of the Rax: "Theater creates spaces for dreams in order to show the full range and diversity of stage art."