About the work
“Die Geburt der Maria Theresia. Aus der Sicht ihrer Amme” (The Birth of Maria Theresa, as Seen by Her Wet Nurse) is a new play by the director and writer Marie Schleef, who is responsible for both text and staging. The world premiere is scheduled for 14 March 2027 at the Akademietheater of the Burgtheater in Vienna. Schleef’s work often explores the unknown and the forgotten and brings to the stage texts by women writers that have received little attention in German-language theatre.
Plot
The starting point is the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, with which Emperor Charles VI sought to secure the succession for a daughter should no son be born. On 13 May 1717 Empress Elisabeth Christine gave birth in Vienna to a daughter, Maria Theresa. The play tells of this birth from the perspective of the child’s unnamed wet nurse.
Cultural significance
At its centre is the question of the role played by women who, through pregnancy, childbirth and nursing, secured the continuity and power of the Habsburgs, while historiography has mostly passed them over.