Und alle so still

“I’ve been asking myself what would happen if all women refused to do what is expected of them. If they decided to do nothing, nothing at all, not go to work, not cook, not clean; they would not drive a bus, nor iron any shirts, nor sit at the supermarket checkout, nor teach any classes, they would enforce a total standstill.”

When Mareike Fallwickl wrote these sentences for her 2021 novel “Die Wut, die bleibt”, she was well aware that they contained another story, a new book: One Sunday in June, the world gets out of sync. Women are lying in the streets. Unmoving, in silent protest. It is here that the paths of Elin, Nuri and Ruth cross. Elin is in her early twenties, a successful influencer, who has experienced something which may or may not have been violence. Nuri, nineteen years old, has dropped out of school and is trying to make ends meet as a bike messenger, patient transporter and food delivery boy. Ruth is in her mid-fifties and works as a hospital nurse, her sense of duty seems inexhaustible. It is the beginning of a revolt in which women are no longer doing what they have always been doing. Suddenly, the very foundations of our system are shaking.

“Die Wut, die bleibt” was Fallwickl’s first novel to be adapted for the stage and saw its world premiere at the Salzburg State Theatre during the 2023 Salzburg Festival. Now, the theatre presents the Austrian premiere of her follow-up novel “Und alle so still”.

“‘Die Wut, die bleibt’ reflects our reality, while ‘Und alle so still’ shows how the world might change. This is why the one novel is dedicated to my daughter, so that she knows in what situation we women find ourselves, and the other one to my son, so that he understands that men will need to reorient themselves, that the only way forward is to go in the same direction – together”, Mareike Fallwickl explains.

Mareike Fallwickl, born in Hallein near Salzburg in 1983, lives in the province of Salzburg with her family. In 2018 she published “Dunkelgrün fast schwarz”, followed by “Das Licht ist hier viel heller” in 2019. Mareike Fallwickl actively promotes interest in literature, with a focus on female narratives.

Director Susanne Schmelcher, winner of a NESTROY theatre award, began gathering theatre experience at the Nationaltheater Mannheim and realised projects on the free theatre scene. She staged her first productions at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, followed for instance by the Theater Heidelberg, the Theater Konstanz and the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck.

Duration: 2 h 35 min

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