SPEAK! The motto of this year’s festival takes itself by literally: The opening focuses on people who have something to say about the state of Austria, of the world and the theatre. 

The theatre must become theatre again, is Antonin Artaud’s demand in his “Theatre of Cruelty”: It must rediscover its sacral and metaphysical dimensions and hypnotise its audience, taking them deep into a state of delirium. 

And the performance opening the festival, created by Graz-based author Fiston Mwanza Mujila, musician Patrick Dunst and actor Philipp Hauß, ventures to do just that. 

The opening will be preceded by the awarding of the Ernst Binder-scholarship to an artist from Graz, who will also be present at the festival.