The management of the Salzburg Festival surprisingly canceled an entire ensemble. Whoever follows stage star Michael Maertens will have a complicated legacy.
It is true that Michael Sturminger’s third production of “Everyman” was not blessed with good blessings. The spectacle of the past few years, in which the stage stars Lars Eidinger and Verena Altenberger took control of the work and transformed it into their own personal, ingenious stage rush, still shone too brightly. The ambitious director felt challenged to surpass himself once again. With Eidinger he had achieved the masterpiece of interpreting the ancient-looking meaningful piece shortly after his 100th birthday in an unexpectedly close and contemporary way. When everyone was wondering what was to come next, Sturminger was determined to provide an answer.
A director who wanted to surpass himself
In the summer of 2023, the theater man tried an even more radical reinterpretation, he relocated the “play about the rich man’s death” to a near-apocalyptic future, and had the Salzburg Cathedral, which has always served as a backdrop, painted the obligatory orange of the climate sprayers of the ” “Last generation” who reliably appeared in the audience as real protesters. This was accompanied by the brilliantly spherical music of the Styrian experimental musician Anja Plaschg. The main actors Valerie Pachner and Michael Maertens, actually both dream casts for this piece, were lost among the production’s many half-baked ideas. The critics complained, the audience was annoyed, and the festival management was alarmed.
Philipp Hochmair and festival president Kristina Hammer at a “Everyman” premiere in Salzburg’s cathedral district
© Franz Neumayr/Action Press
So now the attempt at a liberation strike, which unfortunately ends up being a slap in the face to a great ensemble: the festival management announces that not only the production, but all the actors will not be able to perform on the open-air stage next summer, despite verbal promises and even partially valid contracts will return to the Salzburg Cathedral. This not only affects Maertens and Pachner, but also acting stars such as Nicole Heesters, Helmfried von Lüttichau and Bruno Cathomas. “I was surprised and amazed by this decision, which was made without a single conversation with me,” Maertens told the Austrian news agency APA.
In the meantime, director Markus Hinterhäuser has also said that a “really profound analysis” had been carried out. “This was anything but easy and quite painful for us, and we are also fully aware that this decision is also painful for those previously involved.” But why this has to mean that the festival management acts like a company boss on “Hire & Fire” and the actors and artists were not spoken to in advance remains difficult to understand.