Soul Of Fire

Renowned Austrian pacifist Bertha von Suttner is the central figure of "Feuerseele - Sie kampfte fur den Frieden" ("Soul of fire - She fought for peace"). The well known Austrian actress Maxi Blaha portrays in deliberately and chronologically chosen chapters, contrasts and episodes, the main concerns of B.von Suttner. Either passionate humanitarian engagements or dramatic love-affairs in later years, the heroine's life's vicissitudes are presented in a moving, yet humorous manner.

Suttner, a strong woman, openly and directly struggles with her basic being. She reveals her visions, her feelings and her misery. She shows the ups and down of her struggle with life.

She does so unsparingly honest and hopefully idealistic.

Susanne F. Wolf's play indicates where Bertha's life and exogenous conditions harmonized or contradicted with her biography. Based upon scientific research, the play puts the important political, psychological and emotional aspects of Suttner's life into focus. Passages from Suttner's book and literary text are subtly mingled. The musically accompanied "one woman play" in English is a stirring stocktaking of our times, showing that the great visions and ideals of Bertha von Suttner have remained unresolved to this day and age.

The play is a theatrical endeavour to disseminate the ideas of the great humanist, to keep them alive.

The debut performance of the play took place in the Austrian parliament and since then, over 50 performances have taken place all over Austria, in Paris, Istanbul, Oslo, Maribor, Bratislava as well as in the US, Canada and Japan.

As an avid pacifist, Bertha von Suttner was the figurehead of a world-wide peace movement. She relentlessly fought nationalist fanaticism, aggressive militarism, anti-Semitism and recognized the dangers of hate breeding. As a writer and lecturer, she inspired her friend and benefactor Alfred Nobel to create a Peace Prize. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for her most famous novel "Lay Down your Arms".

Street Two - unreserved | Duration - 55 minutes, no interval.