(Salzburg, Austria) Quick: What has been performed almost 600 times at the Salzburg Festival since 1920?
If you said Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, you're absolutely correct.
Earlier this evening a sold out crowd gathered on risers set up in the Domplatz, and with the late afternoon sun beating down, enjoyed yet another performance (in the original German) of von Hofmannsthal's classic morality play treating the final choice of Jedermann (Everyman), a stinking rich, debauched individual whose time on earth is soon coming to an end.
Nicholas Ofczarek reprised the title role, and gave an energetic performance in this Christian Stückl directed production.
Redhead and raspy-voiced Birgit Minichmayr also reprised the role of Buhlschaft.
Ben Becker was a formidably sized Tod, lathered from head to toe in metallic gray theatrical paint.
Complete with skull cap, long gray hair and beard, Martin Reinke was Gott der Herr and Ein armer Nachtbar.
Peter Jordan was once again the evil almost sadistic looking Jedermanns guter Gesell. He then later appeared as a comic book caricature of the Teufel (devil) dressed in Marlene Poley's black costume complete with small horns and a long tail.
New to the cast this year was Lina Beckmann who gave an audience winning portrayal of Gute Werke. Her verbal sparring with Jordan's Teufel had more humour than had von Hofmannsthal probably envisioned which took away from the seriousness of the play.
In fact, Stückl's staging and Poley's wild costumes for the motley group of musicians (the Ars Antiqua Austria) as well as other characters such as Felix Vörtler's Dicker Vetter, Thomas Limpinsel's Dünner Vetter, and Sasha Oskar Weis's Mammon, veered the production away from the preachy and closer to the entertainment-for-the-masses lane. With that approach, did the play's message fall on deaf ears?
Photo by Leonard Turnevicius: A scene from Jedermann at Salzburg's Domplatz with Martin Reinke (on stairs), Lina Beckmann, Nicholas Ofczarek, and Peter Jordan.
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