Theater im Bunker

The Theatre in the Bunker stands in Mödling, a town south of Vienna in Lower Austria. It occupies part of a 930-metre network of former air-raid tunnels built during the Second World War. The space is not a single hall but a sequence of passages and chambers where small groups of spectators move from one short scene to the next. Each year a new production is mounted, turning the underground system into a stage for a different play or performance. The theatre was founded by Bruno Max, a director, theatre leader and writer, and is run by his company Theatre of Fear. Since 1999 it has presented works based on Kafka, Nestroy, Freud, Carroll, Tolstoy, Poe, Ibsen and Karl May among others. Titles such as ‘Professor Freud Invents Sex’ and ‘Horrible Habsburgs! Six Hundred Years of Sex & Crime & Kaiserschmarrn’ show how the company mixes classical material with playful anachronism. Even cancellations, like the 2022 season, become part of the story. Visitors walk through dimly lit corridors lined with props and lighting effects that change with each production. The original wartime fittings remain visible, adding to the atmosphere. At certain points the audience gathers in small rooms where actors perform brief, intense scenes. The long tunnel system once sheltered up to 8,000 people during air raids, and the theatre keeps that memory alive in its choice of texts and staging.