Josef Szeiler

Josef Szeiler (7 August 1948 in Sankt Michael im Burgenland) is an Austrian theatre director. As co-founder of the group TheaterAngelusNovus he is first of all known for his experimental approach to texts by Heiner Müller, Bertolt Brecht, Homer and Greek dramas.

Josef Szeiler was born in Sankt Michael im Burgenland. At the end of the 1970s he worked as guest assistant for Benno Besson at the Volksbühne Berlin where he met the playwright Heiner Müller, who became a lifelong friend.

Josef Szeiler’s first theatre project in Vienna was Die Schlacht by Heiner Müller. Out of this project arose the group TheaterAngelusNovus which focused on a continuous reflection of theatrical aspects (“Selbstverständigung”) rather than producing small packages of ready made performances that could be consumed in a traditional setting. Still there were regular projects that were also publicly accessible, like the reading of the Iliad in its entire length which was held 1986 at the Vienna Künstlerhaus. The text was read in German in parallel tracks both by members of the group and visitors and also by scholars in the original Greek version. The doors were open during the entire production; people could come and leave, sleep, eat or participate in the readings.

After the split-up of TheaterAngelusNovus in 1988 Josef Szeiler conducted several projects without formal group, such as „FatzerMaterial. Vom Theater ist daher zu Sagen, was man vom Körper sagt“ with Monika Meister at the Institute for Theatre Science at the University of Vienna which focused on aspects of theatre documentation; or HamletMaschine.TokioMaterial, a production of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine in Tokyo which ran in parallel to a Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

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