State of Empathy

Vienna, first district, 2066. Life during the hot season from May to September has partly shifted to Vienna's cool underground. Numerous underground car parks, cellars and tunnels have been adapted, providing Viennese residents with a relaxing refuge on scorching afternoons. Theater am Werk am Petersplatz is now also a SiestaSpace®, as these underground cooling zones are called. The hosts serve drinks and other small refreshments to those resting here. The conversations reflect the new equality: Vienna's urban society is the fairest and most equal since humans began living together in cities, alongside Copenhagen, Oslo and Amsterdam. This required powerful new institutions that enable as many people as possible to live in dignity, prevent violence and cause little damage to the planet.

The institutional changes needed to prepare the ground for an empathetic city gave one group of Viennese people in particular a lot to learn: men. One of them recounts how this transformation was achieved: from violence to compassion, from separation to connectedness, from anger to love. He reveals the deprivation of privilege that showed him one of the many ways out of patriarchy and the patterns of behaviour he had to unlearn in order to agree to it in the first place. He makes contact and, step by step, understands what to do next.

With this project, theaternyx* playfully continues the utopia training developed in its works über.morgen (2019-2022), Fürsorgliche Städte (2023) and Zeitenwalzer (2025).

Since its founding in 2000, theaternyx* has been located at the intersection of theatre, performance and social practice. Since 2004, public urban space has been the occasion and setting for site-specific, resident-specific or community-specific play developments. The interdisciplinary approach, the sublime play with the audience's perception and the delight in unconventional performance formats ensure challenging theatre evenings. This repeatedly succeeds in creating new and different perspectives on cities and their inhabitants. The narratives revolve around identity, diversity and precariousness; around storytelling itself and the spirits of cities. Among other things, the projects thrive on leaving intangible traces in public space and in the minds of the audience.