The Vast Land

A seemingly harmless affair, an unexpected suicide: Suddenly, the life plans of the circle surrounding the wealthy industrialist Friedrich Hofreiter are thrown into turmoil. What begins as an everyday tragicomedy develops in Arthur Schnitzler’s work into a panorama of human relationships teetering on the brink of the abyss. Desires and vanities collide, and amid a dazzling web of affairs, power plays, and self-deception, the question arises as to whether a fulfilling life is even possible in this world. Schnitzler paints a subtle yet unsparing portrait of a society that, on the eve of World War I, is restlessly searching for fulfillment yet repeatedly fails because of its own shortcomings.

Following her acclaimed production of*Desire*, Cilli Drexel returns to the Tyrolean State Theater and once again takes on a major ensemble piece. Her distinctive style—characterized by psychological precision, subtle irony, and an unflinching gaze at the characters’ inner fragility—meets a play whose complexity reveals what is all too human. Together with the actors of the TLT, she explores the emotional expanses between passion and emptiness, between self-protection and self-deception, and between the desire for closeness and the fear of consequences.