Fräulein Else - Schedule, Program & Tickets

by Leonie Böhm and Julia Riedler Julia Riedler was named Actress of the Year 2025 by the trade magazine "Theater heute" for her performance in FRÄULEIN ELSE.

Even 100 years after its publication, this novella by Arthur Schnitzler has lost none of its poignancy and explosive power: during her summer vacation, young Else T. is asked by her parents to ask an elderly art dealer for urgently needed money. However, he wants to unscrupulously exploit his power over the young woman ... In her first Viennese work, director Leonie Böhm creates Schnitzler's story as a solo for actress Julia Riedler - and rethinks Else's stream of consciousness together in the here and now.

"But I've never been so sensible."

Young Else T., the daughter of a good family, is on summer vacation in a posh spa town in Trentino. She passes the time with tennis, mountain hikes and fine dinners - until an express letter from Vienna changes everything. Her mother writes, pleadingly. Else should, no, must restructure her father's ailing finances. After he has once again speculated on the stock market, he needs 30,000 guilders, and he needs it fast, otherwise he faces social respect - or even prison.

Else is now asked to ask a rich friend of the family for the money: the art dealer Dorsday. He is much older than Else, stays at the same spa hotel and always compliments her. She finds him disgusting, but what is the point? The family's good reputation must be preserved. Dorsday, however, recognizes the hopelessness of Else's situation - and uses it for a dark game: he will only transfer the debt if he can look at Else naked for a quarter of an hour ...

First published in 1924, Arthur Schnitzler's novella FRÄULEIN ELSE is still a gripping and multi-layered analysis of the abuse of power, double standards and the commodification of female bodies a century later - consistently written as a stream of thought from Else's inner perspective.

For many years, actress Julia Riedler and director Leonie Böhm have had the idea of bringing this legendary stream of consciousness to the stage in a joint theatrical work - and rethinking it for the here and now. Because that is precisely what is central to Leonie Böhm's work: the canonical texts serve as an opportunity to relate to them in a new way and to write one's own needs and ideas into them. Through the humorous, playful and enigmatic, new and mature readings emerge.

Now, shortly after the 100th birthday of the novella, this project close to her heart is coming to the Volkstheater stage as a solo for Julia Riedler - in Leonie Böhm's first Viennese directorial work.

Subject to change without notice.