Erwin Steinhauer & Friends

Karl Kraus' today most famous work "The Last Days of Mankind" was created as an immediate reaction to World War I. It reflects, in countless facets, human baseness, cruelty, and stupidity—oppressively timeless and relevant for all epochs and countries. Although it was written 100 years ago, we encounter not only historical figures—Vienna remains Vienna—a dangerous threat, as Karl Kraus suggested.

In this production, Erwin Steinhauer succeeds in precisely tracing the razor-sharp formulations of the author. Joachim Ried writes in DIE ZEIT on August 7, 2014: "That a purist approach to The Last Days of Mankind does not have to culminate in a meager theater evening was proven (...) by the outstanding performer Erwin Steinhauer at the Theater in der Josefstadt: He appeared with a cynical reading of a selection from the drama, which he had previously recorded in the studio. (...) He commanded the stage in a black tailcoat behind a lectern and sent his voice on a journey to the larvae and lemurs, to the entire cast of the apocalypse. With his physical presence, he dominates the stage, using sparse gestures, yet there was more happening than in the crowd scenes of other productions. Steinhauer hit every note with astonishing precision; his voice sounded threatening where the severity of the text demanded it, coarse, foolish, ignorant, offended, bloodless, excitedly clucking, or senile. He navigates through the tangle of voices and forms with concentration. A rare theatrical event. "Tonalities race and rattle through time and swell into the choral of the unholy action," it says in the preface. An individual can have all these sounds from the Mars Theater on their tongue.

Music is an essential component of this production. It serves as the acoustic and emotional foundation. With an unusually composed orchestra (Theremin), collage-like montages of excerpts from military or salon music, operetta, and H...