A Year without Summer
It is 2025. We live in a year without summer. In a jump-scare reality that feels like an apocalyptic vision of our world thrown into darkness and stripped of certainty, where survival becomes ritual and despair dances hand in hand with ecstasy.
In 1816, the original ‘year without summer’, Mount Tambora erupts in Indonesia, ashes fill the sky, the sun disappears, crops fail, and the world hungers. That same year, 18-year-old Mary Shelley stays by Lake Geneva with other poets, where storm and darkness inspire them to tell ghost stories. Mary imagines Frankenstein, a genius of science, who forces nature to bend to his will and ends up in destruction with his monster assembled from corpses’ parts.
Florentina Holzinger and her cast explore the stories we tell about our environment, bodies, health, decay and identities: The 21st century pursuit of longevity, medical promises to the perils of unchecked technological growth in a world shaped by AI, robotics, and bioengineering. A Year without Summer appropriates this attempt to improve nature to the point of perversion and plays off the promise of eternal life against the certainty of death. But what happens when the creation becomes the monster? When creation becomes (like) us?
A Tanzquartier Wien event in cooperation with Volkstheater Wien
studied choreography at the Amsterdam School for New Dance Development (SNDO). Dangerous stunts, spectacular circus acts, splatter scenes or extreme martial arts – Holzinger’s work can be situated at the intersection of high culture and so-called entertainment culture. At the same time, it can also be read as a continuous feminist manifesto. TANZ, which premiered at TQW in 2019, was invited to Berliner Theatertreffen in 2020 and awarded the Austrian theatre prize Nestroy for Best Director. A Divine Comedy followed in 2021, premiered at the Ruhrtriennale and shown immediately afterwards at TQW. In 2023, TQW presented the multi-award-winning feminist water spectacle Ophelia’s Got Talent in collaboration with the Volkstheater Wien. In 2024, Holzinger directed her first opera SANCTA, based on Paul Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna, at the Wiener Festwochen and other venues. Additionally, the same year, she took on her first leading role on the screen in Moon, directed by Kurdwin Ayub; the film won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Holzinger has been selected to represent the Austrian Pavilion at the 61st Biennale di Venezia in 2026.
Credits
Direction, choreography, performance Florentina Holzinger Performance by and with Achan Malonda, Andrea Baker, Annina Machaz, Bärbel Warneke, Beatrice ‘Trixie’ Cordua, Bláthin Eckhardt, Born in Flamez, Brigitte ‘Gitti’ Ulm, Constanza Pérez de Lara Bonatti, Bear Boy, Fibi Eyewalker, Florentina Holzinger, Gibrana Cervantes, Liane Jil Apel, Luz de Luna Duran, MING, Netti Nüganen, otay:onii, Renée Copraij, Renée Eigendorff, Saioa Alvarez Ruiz, Sahel van K, Sofia Borges, Sophie Duncan, Sue Shay, Xana Novais Musical direction Born in Flamez, Stefan Schneider Composition Born in Flamez, Stefan Schneider, Josephinex Ashley Hansis Additional music production, mixing, arrangements Philipp Hülsenbeck Sound design Stefan Scheneider, Olivia Oyama Dramaturgy Felix Ritter, Fernando Belfiore, Michele Rizzo, Sara Ostertag Dramaturgy Volksbühne Leonie Hahn Assistant director Xavier Perez Choreography assistant Sophie Duncan Stage Nikola Knežević Costume Christiane Hilmer Technical direction Emma Juliard, Stephan Werner Stage technician, rigging Dörte Wilforth Stunt coordination Ronny Hornig – Gravity Stunts Coaching Leon Le Nestour, Elisa Siegmund Light design Kevin Sock Video design Zoe Bassi, Max Heesen Sound engineering Olivia Oyama, Rozenn Lièvre Sound assistant Fjóla Gautadóttir Stage assistant Christiane Hilmer Robotics Boiling Head, Zoe Bassi with thanks to the Roboverse community Intimacy coaching Jasko Fide Intimacy coordination (Casting) Dani Brown, Frida Giulia Franceschini Production management Sarah Parolin, Katharina Wallisch PR, communication Giulia Messia Tour management Sarah Parolin with Moira L Sunter Garee Management, international distribution neon lobster / Katharina Wallisch & Giulia Messia – A production by Florentina Holzinger/Spirit, neon lobster and Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin. In coproduction with Tanzquartier Wien, Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel, Hamburg, Dansens Hus, Stockholm, deSingel, Antwerp, Maska, Ljubljana, asphalt Festival, Düsseldorf, Rising Melbourne, Factory International, Manchester, Divine Comedy International Theatre Festival / Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, Kraków, and Marvaða, Reykjavík. Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, and the Municipal Department of Cultural Affairs, Vienna. With support from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport. Thanks to Ada’s Deli, Alicia Beier, Galen Tipcon, Hector Alberto Tosta de la Rosa, Karsten Schuhl, Sina Lorber, Toxo. Performing rights: GODS: Words & Music by Jim Steinman © Edward B Marks Music Company. Courtesy of Neue Welt Musikverlag GmbH.
We recommend a minimum age of 18 to attend the performance.
Visitor note: The show includes blood and bodily fluids, self-harming acts, the explicit depiction of sexual acts as well as strobe lighting and loud music. More
Remaining tickets at the evening box office
One hour before showtime, we issue waiting numbers for any remaining tickets. These tickets may become available at short notice, such as when reserved tickets are not collected. A maximum of two waiting numbers can be issued per person. One ticket can be purchased for each waiting number.