Wenn wir doch wieder Menschen wären - Rabenhof Theater - Wien - 2026

Rabenhof Theater, Wien

To commemorate Kristallnacht, the Gemeindebautheater is presenting a semi-staged theatrical evening honoring the tenants who were evicted from Vienna’s municipal housing in 1938. It gives them a voice and a presence on stage. Through documents, letters, and written accounts from those affected, their lives and individual fates are brought to light.
Excerpts from these stirring and moving eyewitness accounts are being presented to the public for the first time in most cases. They are brought to life through theatrical scenes, dance, video, music, and song, bearing witness to the hopes, illusions, fears, hardships, despair, and individual ways of coping with hopelessness and suffering.

The texts are based, among other sources, on years of research conducted by the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance on behalf of Wiener Wohnen. *IF ONLY WE WERE HUMAN AGAIN* raises awareness about those who were forced to endure a reign of terror and encourages an examination of the danger posed by far-right ideology in our political reality.

Artistic Team: Isabella Gregor (Overall Direction, Direction, Text Collage), Susanne F. Wolf (Research, Text Adaptation, Fictional Dialogues/Monologues), Oliver Ostermann (Composition/Collages)
Cast: Lea Kalisch, Katja Reichert, Verena Scheitz, Mercedes M. Vargas Iribar, Miriam M. Vargas Iribar, Markus Freistädter, Wolfram Rupperti, Georg Schubert
Music: Adrian Roman (violin), Oliver Ostermann (piano)