Actors Christoph Wieschke and Matthias Hermann, dressed in suits, stand in front of a large water boiler in a power plant. To their left, Kammerschauspielerin Britta Bayer poses in a pantsuit, gazing at the camera with a confident, slightly superior expression.

"Manhattan Project" | CA Britta Bayer, Matthias Hermann, Christoph Wieschke
© SLT / Tobias Witzgall

Manhattan Project

Stefano Massini

Premiere: January 22, 2026 / Kammerspiele

Synopsis

In the 1940s, a group of brilliant Hungarian scientists flee Europe because of its racial laws. They gather in New York and become the first to explore the military use of uranium. It is feared that the German “Reich” is already making a similar effort. The project’s powerful financial backer, the Lithuanian Jew Alexander Sachs, uses his Wall Street contacts to create an impressive money-raising network. Massini’s latest play revolves around Robert Oppenheimer, a scientist with a restless and highly controversial profile, who even as a child chose to embark on a “search for a logic to the bitter end”, intended to protect him from his inner monsters. A tormented, fragile individual, he is appointed the scientific head of the Manhattan Project by Vannevar Bush in 1942. Tension mounts with the overwhelming ascent of the Berlin machinery of war and the rise of the Japanese empire.

The play shows a fearful and confused humanity urged to celebrate the contribution of science to the first real weapon of mass destruction as the cries of the deported and the screams from Europe’s burning ghettos are echoing all around.

Stefano Massini, born in Florence in 1975, is considered one of the most important contemporary authors of Italian theatre. He has been working as a director since 2000 and won the renowned Premio Pier Vittorio Tondelli for his work as an author as early as 2005. This was followed by a long list of nominations and awards. His play “Lehman Brothers”, staged by Claus Tröger, was a great success with Salzburg audiences.

Director Claus Tröger has had close ties to the Salzburg State Theatre for many years. In addition to staging productions in South Tyrol, Bavaria, Bautzen, etc., he returns to make an artistic contribution in Salzburg every year. He is a master of dramatics, and together with stage designer Erich Uiberlacker, he has presented several impressive productions, including “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, “Lehman Brothers” and Horváth’s “Hin und Her (To and Fro)”.

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