About the work
“Elisabeth!” is a monologue for one actress by the Austrian writer Mareike Fallwickl. Fallwickl wrote it at the suggestion of the actress Stefanie Reinsperger; it is an original play and not an adaptation of one of her novels. It premiered on 11 April 2025 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, directed by Fritzi Wartenberg, with Reinsperger in the title role.
Plot
More than a century after her death, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, long since glorified as the icon “Sisi”, takes the floor herself. In ten exercises modelled on a drill manual she angrily takes apart the roles that the court, the public and posterity have assigned to her. The monologue draws lines from the monarchy through the suppression of the early women’s movement, for instance through the women’s rights activist Karoline von Perin, to present-day setbacks in gender equality.
Cultural significance
The play uses the Sisi cult, especially present in Vienna, as the starting point for a feminist look at the present. Critics praised above all the visual power of the premiere and Reinsperger’s performance but were divided about the associative text. The monologue has since been staged elsewhere, for example at the Landestheater Tübingen.