THE ORGIES MYSTERIES THEATER
Performance of the last 3 days of the 6-day play
June 7 — 9, 2025
Schloss Prinzendorf, Prinzendorf an der Zaya, AT
It was Hermann Nitsch’s wish that Schloss Prinzendorf should remain the venue for his O.M. Theater even after his death. Rita Nitsch is fulfilling this last request with the staged performance of the 160th action. This year, from 7-9 June 2025, the last part for the time being will take place.
The days 1 and 2 of this second version of the 6-day play were performed in July 2022. The third day, dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine, joy, grapes, fertility and ecstasy, was performed on Pentecost Sunday 2023. Rita Nitsch, supported by Andrea Cusumano, Leonhard Kopp and Frank Gassner, realized the heartfelt wish of the artist, who died in April 2022, with more than 60 actors and over 100 musicians. This year, from June 7-9, 2025, the last section for the time being will take place: the performance of the last 3 days of his 6-day play in the 2nd extended version.
“the 6 day performance of the o.m. theatre aims to be the greatest and most important celebration of man […]. it is at once a folk festival and a mysterium of existence that is brought to consciousness. the festival that is the o.m. theatre has no other pretext than the mystical glorifying of our being-here. the festival propels in the direction of an existence realized by people who come around to themselves. […]
the whole course of life is condensed into a mythical experience. the rapturous intensity of existence must spread over all areas of being, across everyday life. a world overcome with cheerful joviality should allow us to serenely immerse in all possibilities of enjoyment. all the senses have to be intensified and sensitized. the extreme sublimation of the excessive is the upsurge of the intensely felt liveliness spreading through us, rising to the joyous rapture of the state of altruistic love. love not understood as commandment but as state, as the highest state of existence, as a state of being. love is the mystic of being spread across the whole of life.”
The consummation of life should be a celebration and the 6-day play of the Orgien Mysterien Theater should be the greatest celebration of mankind!
The setting of the play is the castle complex in Prinzendorf with all its rooms and the surrounding landscape as well as the cellar alleys of the Lower Austrian wine district.
SHORT PROGRAM (in progress)
Day 4 | Saturday, June 7, 2025
~4:15 Sunrise music (percussion, synthesizer)
~4:53 Sunrise viewing
~8:30 Orchestra and choir begin performing in the courtyard of Prinzendorf Castle
– Arrival of the shuttle bus from Vienna –
~9:30 Actions begin with a ritual foot washing
~10:30 Actions at tables in the castle courtyard with meat, fish, blood, fruit, etc.
~12:00 Lunch break
~14:00 Body preformances in various areas of the castle courtyard
~16:20 Procession from the castle across the fields and through the village accompanied by a brass band
~6:00 Dinner at the old mill in Rannersdorf
– Departure of the shuttle bus to Vienna –
~22:00 Performers return to the castle
~23:00 A string quartet plays in the castle park (until max. 3:00 a.m.)
~00:00 Stargazing
Day 5 | Sunday, June 8, 2025
~4:15 Sunrise music (percussion, synthesizer)
~4:52 Sunrise viewing
~8:30 Orchestra and choir begin in the courtyard of Prinzendorf Castle
– Arrival of the shuttle bus from Vienna –
~10:00 Orchestra and sound performance in the castle courtyard
~10:00 Live broadcast of the Amfortas performance from the castle’s cellar
~11:30 Continuation of the performance in the courtyard
~12:30 Lunch break
~14:30 Continuation of the Amfortas performance with spears, Oedipus theme is introduced
~17:00 The performances become more intense and build to the finale
~18:00 Dinner at the castle
~20:20 The bells ring
– Departure of the shuttle bus to Vienna –
~20:51 Sunset music (synthesizer)
~22:00 A string quartet plays in the park of the castle (up to 3:30 a.m. max.)
~00:00 Stargazing
Day 6 | Monday, 9 June 2025
~04:15 Sunrise music (percussion, synthesizer)
~04:52 Watching the sunrise
~06:00 Max Stiegl starts preparing for the “sautanz” (food: langos,…)
~08:00 Morning music (synthesizer)
~08:00 A pig is debridled and opened (food: brain with egg, blood sausage, pig’s liver,…)
– arrival of the shuttle bus from vienna –
~10:15 Finale actions (amfortas / oedipus / christ) in the castle courtyard, accompanied by synthesizer
~12:30 The actions reach their final climax, theme of resurrection
~13:30 Max Stiegl prepares traditional “sautanz” dishes (food: sausages, creamed heart, boiled meat, grammeln, doughnuts, …)
~14:00 Music by Moša Šiši and his ensemble
~20:00 evening/closing dinner with a pig’s head
~20:51 sunset music (synthesizer)
– departure of the shuttle bus to vienna –
~21:30 procession with torchlights to a wine cellar nearby
~00:00 stargazing
End | Tuesday, June 10, 2025
~3:15 a string quartet plays in the castle park
~4:15 sunrise music (percussion, synthesizer)
~4:52 sunrise viewing
~6:00 the players hug and kiss. The 6-day play comes to its end.
TICKETSHOP
TICKET CATEGORIES
1 day: entitles the holder to visit the event on any day of the event
3 days: entitles the holder to visit the event for the entire duration
Discounted tickets are available for:
• students with a valid student ID up to the age of 28
• senior citizens aged 65 and older
• members of the association supporting the O.M. Theater
• patrons and friends of the nitsch museum
• friends of our cooperation partners
Further information on the Orgies Mysteries Theater …
Schloss Prinzendorf
Schloss Straße 1
2185 Prinzendorf an der Zaya
Austria
www.nitsch.org