Peter Handke's new text to premiere at Salzburg Festival

The upcoming 2026 Salzburg Festival will feature "Snow of Yesterday, Snow of Tomorrow," a new text by Austrian author Peter Handke. Director Jossi Wieler, who has previously staged Handke's "Kaspar" and "Zdeněk Adamec," described the text as "written for the theater" and "particularly sensual."

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It is written for the theater, it is particularly sensual.

Wieler elaborated that the work explores themes of transience, the passage of time, farewell, and different perspectives on the world. Actors Jens Harzer and Marina Galic, both familiar with Handke's oeuvre, have been cast in the production. Harzer noted a connection between his character's solitary journey in Handke's "Still Storm" and the new text's exploration of a figure wandering and fabricating the world.

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It is about transience, it is about how time passes, it is about farewell, it is about the world as it is viewed from the inside, as it is viewed from the outside.

Galic, who also appeared in "Still Storm" and Handke's "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other," highlighted Handke's "loving and humorous observational gaze" on global events. She recalled a visit with Wieler and Harzer to Handke's home in Chaville, near Paris, where they spent a day "meandering through the piece" in the "most beautiful sense." Galic was particularly struck by Handke's connection to nature and his deliberate choice to live outside the city, commuting by train for evening meals in Paris and frequenting a local forest.

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The last half hour in ,Immer noch Sturm‘, where my character walked alone across the stage, has to do with this new text: This kind of searching movements of a figure running alone through the world, fabricating the world.

She also mentioned Handke's preference for eating out, enjoying the sounds and sights of people in restaurants. Galic found the abrupt shift in perspective near the end of "Snow of Yesterday, Snow of Tomorrow" particularly impactful, where the narrative suddenly changes.

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A play without language, which, however, tells just as much about Handke, about his loving and humorous observational gaze on the events of the world.