Premiere in Reichenau: Zweig's Novella Reimagined as a Theatrical Confession

From Hotel Guest to Sister: A Changed Confession Situation

At the center is Mrs. C, her designation in Zweig, who for the rest of her life could not let go of those 24 hours she experienced as a 42-year-old, at the time already widowed, woman. In the dramatization, Charlotte thus confesses to her own sister Agnes (Sona MacDonald) — from the confession of an older lady to a hotel guest who is a stranger to her, it becomes here an invented conversation with her sister.

The action takes place in the foyer of the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo, where Charlotte (Julia Stemberger) from Newcastle has just arrived. It was there that she had once spent a night with the down-and-out Teo, whom she first saw in the casino and wanted to "save" from his gambling addiction. Nils Arztmann plays the gambling-addicted Teo from the jeunesse dorée, prancing around with a cigarette, and thus gives the figure a physical lightness that stands in clear contrast to Charlotte's inner turmoil.

Alena Hoffmann is responsible for the set and costumes. The stage is set in a style reminiscent of Wes Anderson's lavish film The Grand Budapest Hotel: pastel colors, carefully arranged symmetries, and an artificial hotel world that evokes the early 20th century in which Zweig's story is set. Within this framework, Alex Kapl plays a clumsy waiter who accompanies the events in the foyer with small mishaps.

Stage and Dialogues in the Style of Wes Anderson

The evening relies on pointed, at times absurd, dialogue. Examples include lines such as "Ich habe dich geliebt!" and "Ich will dich nie wieder sehen!". These punchlines land because the play ironically breaks the conventions of the drawing room without betraying the seriousness of Charlotte's memory. Sona MacDonald, who plays her role as sister Agnes, supports Sona MacDonald vocally at the microphone, thus giving the sister a commenting, almost chorus-singer-like presence.

The audience reacted at the end with standing ovations. The review states: „Ein verworrener Abend, der indes mit Standing Ovations quittiert wurde." The text by Margarete Affenzeller, dated 6.7.2026, pays tribute above all to the performance of Julia Stemberger, who carries Charlotte's slow self-revelation over two and a half hours.

Dramaturgically, the direction significantly alters the approach to the material: from the monological confession to a stranger, it becomes a dialogue between sisters, which renegotiates the figure's silence and shame. The physical proximity of the two women creates a different tension than the distance to the anonymous hotel guest — intimacy instead of politeness.

Festival Profile and Cast

With the premiere, the Festspiele Reichenau expand their profile to include another prominently cast Zweig adaptation. The combination of an autofictional-seeming confession monologue, hotel setting, and such Grand Hotel aesthetic fits the festival's program, which places „die Jahrhundertwende und ihre bekannten Zugpferde" at the center. Whether the piece will be incorporated into the further schedule was not initially known.

For the Theater Reichenau, the production is also a heavyweight in terms of personnel: with Julia Stemberger in the title role, Nils Arztmann as Teo, Sona MacDonald as Agnes, and Alex Kapl as the waiter, as well as Alena Hoffmann for set and costumes, the cast is prominent. Director Gordon Greenberg, who adapted the piece together with Thomas Kahry, focuses less on realistic milieu reconstruction than on a stylized hotel world that evokes associations with Wes Anderson and presents the figures as if under a glass dome.

The material itself, however, remains timeless: a woman who, as a wife and mother, always remained inconspicuous, did something entirely unreasonable and spent a night with the down-and-out Teo, whom she first saw in the casino. She wanted to "save" him from his gambling addiction. In Reichenau, this becomes a stage figure whose failure and longing become equally visible — without moral judgment, but with precise gesture.