The new amateur cast of the Salzburg Festival
Actor Michael Maertens will play Jedermann from 2023, his paramour is the young Upper Austrian Valerie Pachner. She will also take on the role of Death, making it the first dual role for a party at the Salzburg Festival.
When the Everyman at the Salzburg Festival 2023 on July 21st at the Domplatz will once again attract tense glances as the new Jedermann, Michael Maertens, and the new paramour Valerie Pachner celebrate their premieres on the most famous stage in Salzburg. Because Lars Eidinger and Verena Altenberger had declared after the premiere last summer that they were over after two seasons as Jedermann and Amour, acting director Bettina Hering and director Michael Sturminger were looking for a new cast for 2023 – die was officially announced by the Salzburg Festival on December 1, 2022.
The new line-up is about the 21st. Anyone and the 36th paramour of festival history, President Kristina Hammer and, like Bettina Hering, commemorated the recently deceased “very special paramour” Christiane Hörbiger. With Tobias Moretti and Lars Eidinger, Sturminger showed “that everyone can be at home in very different worlds,” said Hering, who developed the new cast together with the director, “almost all of them are new” because they are new Jedermann actors changed “the whole coordinate system” and a new ensemble was created.
“I already associate the obviously unequal gender ratio with this role,” emphasizes the 35-year-old Upper Austrian. “The female protagonist fulfills the role of love and everyone wants to know what dress she is wearing, while the male protagonist carries the whole story. On a cultural-historical level, however, that is exactly what makes it so appealing: who am I as this woman who gets a lot of attention for her body but few sentences – in 2023?”
For Burgtheater actor Michael Maertens, the appeal of the role as Jedermann also lies in the more than 100-year tradition. “Even as a child, my father told me a lot about Attila Hörbiger as one of the first Jedermann actors, for example, he went to Salzburg to see him,” says the native of Hamburg. “For me, looking at my own festival past, I have come full circle. It is a real honor to be part of the Salzburg Festival because I can absolutely identify with what IS being done there – especially in recent years at Jedermann.”
All-round renewal of the Jedermann cast
In addition to paramour and Jedermann, almost all other positions have changed. Singer Anja Plaschg (known from her band Soap&Skin) will take over the faith from Kathleen Morgeneyer, Cornelia Froboess from Angela Winkler the role of Jedermann’s mother – and Sarah Viktoria Frick not only embodies the devil, played by Mavie Hörbiger, but also God .
Anyone. The play about the death of the rich man by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
- Director: Michael Sturminger
- Set and costumes: Renate Martin, Andreas Donhauser
- Composition: Wolfgang Mitterer
- Musical direction: Hannes Loechel
- Choreography: Dan Safer
- Light: Urs Schönebaum
- Dramaturgy: Alexandra Althoff
- Love / Death: Valerie Pachner
- Everyone: Michael Märtens
- Everyone’s mother: Cornelia Froboess
- Everyone’s good companion: Helmfried von Lüttichau
- A poor neighbor: Emanuel Fellmer
- A bonded servant / Mammon: Mirco Kreibich
- The debtor’s wife / works: Birte Schnöink
- Fat cousin: Bruno Kathomas
- Skinny cousin: Fridolin Sandmeyer
- Faith: Anja Plaschg
- Devil / God: Sarah Viktoria Frick
- Table society / works / neighbors: Theresa Dlouhy, Fabian Düberg, Paula Jeckstadt, Skye MacDonald, Maximilian Paier, Katharina Rose, Therese Troyer
Since 1920, “Jedermann” has been performed 757 times as part of the Salzburg Festival. The 2023 premiere is on July 21, after which a total of 13 more performances are on the program until August 29. All information can be found here: www.salzburgerfestspiele.at