Ballhaus - Salzburg State Theatre

John von Düffel / William Shakespeare
Play with Sports and Ballet

Acting, dancing, and playing sports – all of this was possible in the Ballhaus. Theater has been performed at the Mirabell Garden for 400 years. The first theater building was constructed in 1625 and was called the Ballhaus. In fact, the impressive building with an open roof structure, three galleries, and almost 50 meters in length served multiple functions, namely as a theater, dance palace, and sports hall.

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the current state theater, John von Düffel is writing a play that brings the backstory to life as it might have been. An ambitious architect plans the new building as a place for civic community, but of course, disputes about its use arise early on. Sports, dance, and drama clash during the day, but at night, the Ballhaus becomes a place of longing and dreams. Suddenly, the action of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" unfolds there in the interplay of disciplines. Lovers search for and find a place where confusions and mix-ups occur, encounter fairies, a theater ensemble, and experience a crazy night with fabulously dancing shadow beings. The next morning, no one quite knows what was real and what was not.

William Shakespeare's plays flourished in London when the Ballhaus was built in Salzburg, and thus, the theatrical founding times come together creatively in this piece, which complements "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with an added framing story. The acting ensemble is expanded with dancers from the ballet division, and Salzburg sports clubs are invited to use the Ballhaus as a showcase.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and John von Düffel (*1966) are the authors bridging the gap from then to now. At the state theater, on the site of the former Ballhaus, which Prince-Archbishop Paris Lodron had built in 1625 "for the purpose of ball games," for the entertainment of the court society and to experience theater, their texts come together in a play.

Carl Philip von Maldeghem and Reginaldo Oliveira celebrate the premiere of the commissioned work by John von Düffel, honoring both the sporting and theatrical play as a cross-genre festival of drama, ballet, and sports. To this end, set designer Thomas Mika creates a visual reminiscence of the Ballhaus of yesteryear.