A German version of Tennessee Williams’ most popular play is now on at the Burgtheater.
Dörte Lyssewski, Nicholas Ofczarek and Katharina Lorenz star in “Endstation Sehnsucht”. Tickets for the German stage adaption of “A Streetcar Named Desire”, for which Williams received the Pulitzer Prize, are in great demand. Call +43 1 514 444 145 or go to www.burgtheater.at to buy tickets.
Ofczarek, who played supporting and leading roles in successful TV productions such as “Kommissar Rex” and movies like “Nordrand” and “Falco – Verdammt, wir leben noch!”, is one of the most celebrated members of the Burgtheater ensemble.
He has starred in the Salzburg Festival’s (Salzburger Festspiele) “Jedermann” since 2010. Ofczarek is expected to perform in the leading role of the play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal for the last time this summer as Birgit Minichmayr, who co-stars in the popular stage drama, recently disclosed that she would not be part of the “Jedermann” cast from 2013.
Ofczarek’s performance in the Burgtheater’s “Was ihr wollt” (What You Will or Twelfth Night) was met with unanimous acclaim by audiences and critics. Joachim Meyerhoff, Michael Maertens and several other favourites of Viennese theatregoers co-star alongside Ofczarek in William Shakespeare’s play. Burgtheater head Matthias Hartmann directs his theatre’s version of “What You Will”.
Maertens plays a leading role in “Der ideale Mann”. Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek’s German adaption of the famous Oscar Wilde play “An Ideal Husband” is currently on at the Akademietheater, one of the Burgtheater’s sister theatres. Johann Adam Oest and Matthias Matschke can be seen on stage in the same play too.
The Burgtheater is widely seen as one of the best theatres in Central Europe. Culture Minister Claudia Schmied of the Austrian Social Democrats (SPÖ) announced last month that she decided to extend Hartmann’s contract by another five years until 2019. The German theatre director took over at the Burgtheater – which is situated a few minutes’ walk from popular museums and galleries like the Kunsthalle Wien (visit www.kunsthallewien.at for ticket information and opening times) and the Bank Austria (BA) Kunstforum (www.bankaustria-kunstforum.at) – in 2009.
“Vanity”, a fashion photo exhibit documenting developments from the early 1920s to today, is currently on display at the Kunsthalle Wien. The exhibition features around 200 images, including works by Helmut Newton and David LaChapelle. The BA Kunstforum focuses on pieces of art by Herbert Brandl. Around 60 works by the Graz-born artist are on display at the gallery which previously hosted exhibits by Frida Kahlo, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky and Fernando Botero.
