MY OLD LADY
by Israel Horovitz
Ticket Deals
20€ Online booking at least 24 hrs before show
22€ Reservations and evening box office
18 € Club Ö1, unions, Pensioners, Verbund, Kolping members
16 € as of 5zig, Tera Vienna Card, groups 6+ persons
15 € Theatre Tuesday, disabled card holders, WUK
11 € Family extra, Students, MDW/Uni. Darstell. Kunst, IG Theater, Club Ö1 Students, Students 6+,
0 € Kulturpass Hunger auf Kunst und Kultur, Wiener Mobilpass, Präsenz- und Zivildiener
Press:
Press & general enquiries contact
Joanna Godwin-Seidl
Tel.: 43(0) 699 12127679
office@viennatheatreproject.at
With thanks to our sponsors: , Theater Drachengasse, Gernot Ottowitz Medienproduktion, Ine& Thomas Photography,
vienna theatre project leading team:
Joanna Godwin-Seidl, Ine Gundersveen, Gernot Ottowitz & Laura D Mitchell
Assist. Director: Laura D Mitchell
Stage Manager: Laura D Mitchell
Stage Crew: vienna theatre project
Costumes: vienna theatre project
Set Design: vienna theatre project
Set building: Hannes Stockinger & Julian Brendinger
Lights and sound tech, SFX: Matthias Höpler
Visuals: Gernot Ottowitz
Poster/Flyer/Film/Trailer: Gernot Ottowitz
Production Photos: Gernot Ottowitz
PR & Sponsorship: Joanna Godwin-Seidl
In House: Katrin Schurich, Beate Platzgummer
and team
Image © Gernot Ottowitz / viennatheatreproject
Opening in 2026, watch this space for posters, flyers, interviews and trailers.
New, Austrian Premiere!
MY OLD LADY
By Israel Horovitz
Premiere: 9th February 2026
Performances: 10th – 21st February 2026, 8pm
Bar & Co, approx. 1 hour 40 minutes
Directed by Joanna Godwin-Seidl
Starring Kathy Tanner, Dave Moskin & Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger
vienna theatre project returns to Theater Drachengasse with this Austrian premiere in English, a richly layered, bittersweet dramedy from award-winning playwright Horovitz — a quietly compelling tale of inheritance, identity, and the unresolved echoes of the past.
When down-on-his-luck Mathias Gold arrives in Vienna to claim the fabulous apartment he’s inherited from his estranged father, he’s thrilled, and dreams of a fresh start. Instead, he discovers two mysterious women already living there — and finds himself thrust into an unexpected twist of fate.
As secrets surface and loyalties are tested, My Old Lady reveals a world of humour, heartbreak, and unforeseen connection — exploring what we carry, what we bury, and how complete strangers can alter the course of our lives forever.
It reminds us that life doesn’t stop surprising us — whatever age we are.
Critical Praise:
“Intriguingly rich… reflects the prolific writer’s continuing search for new thematic and emotional depths.” — Variety
“Touches of comedy that make it so satisfying.” — Wall Street Journal
“A soft-centred confectionary… ingenious twists.” — The Guardian
Thanks...
Paris? Vienna? A Little Rental-Law Love Story — For Those in the Know...
The original play is indeed set in Paris… but in a delightful twist, we discovered — in what soon became a clever suggestion from Kathy Tanner and Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger — that certain Viennese rental laws echo those of Paris. It was a coincidence too charming not to embrace. And so, with a wink to both cities, we’ve brought the story home to Vienna for you to enjoy even more.
We are grateful to the Horovitz family for allowing us to relocate the story to Vienna, and to Dave Moskin, who — with the support of Joanna Godwin-Seidl — adapted the script, translated select German-language passages, and, after many hours of research, meticulously revised the historical references to Viennese places, people, and music.
- Performance rights with kind permission of the family of Israel Horovitz -
Director
Joanna Godwin-Seidl is an actress, director, and producer who studied film and theatre in the United Kingdom and Vienna. She has led vienna theatre project since 2006, presenting contemporary work across genres and languages.
Her German-language directing credits include Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (Ronacher Theater), Hautnah by Patrick Marber (OFF Theater), and Emigranten (Kultursommer Wien).
In musical theatre she has directed The Last Five Years, Tick, Tick… Boom!—nominated by BackStage for Best Musical and Best Ensemble of the Decade—and Marry Me a Little (Theater Drachengasse).
Joanna is drawn to plays with social and political resonance. Her work includes Dirt and The Meeting (Theater am Petersplatz); acclaimed stagings of Topdog/Underdog, Disgraced, and The Invisible Hand; and sold-out productions of Ayad Akhtar’s The Who & The What and Robert Schenkkan’s Building the Wall. She also enjoyed an excursion into opera with The Barber of Seville at the Klassikfestival Schloss Kirchstetten.
As a co-producer, she helped bring A Bedfull of Foreigners to MUTH with Art for Charity. Her direction of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop earned her a third Pick of the Week from the Austrian press. She also directed Nina Simone: Four Women and appeared onstage in Relative Values (Le Studio Molière, 2021 & 2023).
Joanna has been praised for her performances in Psychosis 4.48 and as Persephone in Airswimming. Recent highlights include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Dreck — a noted audience hit at Kultursommer Wien—The P Word and N, the multi-award-winning production of English by Sanaz Toossi, and a staged reading of Grey Rock by Amir Nizar Zuabi.
Alongside her theatre work, Joanna is also active as a voice artist and presenter for film, advertising, documentary projects, and live events, and welcomes every opportunity to explore the world of film.
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Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz (1939-2020) was a playwright, director and actor. His plays have been translated and performed in as many as 30 languages worldwide. His 70+ plays include Line (which ran for 50 years of continuous performance, off-Broadway, at 13th St. Repertory Theatre), The Indian Wants The Bronx (premiered off-Broadway with Al Pacino and John Cazale), Rats, Morning, The Primary English Class (starred Diane Keaton, off-Broadway), The Wakefield Plays, The Widow's Blind Date, Today I Am A Fountain Pen, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard (Broadway: Jason Robards & Judith Ivey), North Shore Fish, Fighting Over Beverley, Lebensraum, My Old Lady (starred Sian Philips and Jan Maxwell, off-Broadway; in repertory at The Moscow Art Theatre), Free Gift, Cat-Lady, Stations of the Cross, One Under, 50 Years of Caddying, Speaking Well of the Dead, Unexpected Tenderness, Fast Hands, Security, A Mother's Love, Sins of the Mother (IRNE Best New Play 2009), Gloucester Blue, 6 Hotels (including The Audition Play, Fiddleheads and Lovers, Speaking of Tushy, 2nd Violin, Beirut Rocks and The Hotel Play), Compromise, The Secret of Mme. Bonnard's Bath and The P Word.
Screenplays include Author! Author! (starring Al Pacino and Dyan Cannon, produced by Irwin Winkler), The Strawberry Statement (Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival), Sunshine (European Academy Award Best Screenplay), Emmy-nominated James Dean (starring James Franco), My Old Lady (which Horovitz adapted and directed, starring Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith) and New York, I Love You.
Horovitz wrote, directed and performed the award-winning documentary 3 Weeks After Paradise, shown in the USA on Bravo, frequently on stage in Paris.
Awards include the Obie (twice), the Prix de Plaisir du Theatre, The Prix Italia (for radio plays), The Sony Radio Academy Award (for Man In Snow), The European Academy award for Sunshine, The Writers Guild of Canada Best Screenwriter Award, The Christopher Award, The Drama Desk Award, an Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Elliot Norton Prize, a Lifetime Achievement Award from B'Nai Brith, The Literature Prize of Washington College, an honorary Doctorate iin Humane Letters from Salem (Massachusetts) State College, Boston Public Library's Literary Lights Award, The Walker Hancock Prize and many others.
Horovitz was Founding Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company (Gloucester, MA) and Founding Artistic Director of the New York Playwrights Lab, and was co-Artistic Director of Compagnia Horovitz-Paciotto in Italy. For two decades, he taught a master class in screenwriting at Columbia University and La Femis, France's national film school, and a playwriting master class at University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Horovitz frequently visited France, where he often directed French-language productions of his plays. He is the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history, and was decorated as Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest decoration for foreign artists.
The 70/70 Horovitz Project, created by NYC's Barefoot Theatre, began on Horovitz's 70th birthday. During the year between 31 March 2009 and 31 March 2010, 70 of Horovitz's plays were given productions and/or readings by theatres in more than 20 countries around the globe. Horovitz was married to Gillian Adams-Horovitz, former English National Marathon Champion and record-holder, and was the father of five children.
The CAST
Kathy Tanner is Mathilde Girard
Kathy Tanner is an Austro-Irish Actress based in Vienna and has been performing across Austria, Germany, England and the USA since 1979. Her career spans all aspects of acting – classical and experimental theatre, comedy, musicals, improvisation, film, television and even her own radio show.
Notable stage credits include Sister Act, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Much Ado About Nothing, Bedroom Farce, MindNumbingFilthyFingerPotholes, and most recently Dirty Old Women.
She is a trained clown and was the first CliniClown in Europe in 1991, pioneering the movement and serving for many years as its artistic director. As a founding member of the English Lovers, Vienna’s acclaimed impro group, she has performed and taught all over Europe and the USA.
Beyond the stage, she’s an activist, involved in Omas Gegen Rechts and their theatrical branch Omas On Stage, using street and theatre performance as a tool for resistance and change.
Retirement? Not a chance!!
Dave Moskin is Mathias Gold
Dave grew up in NYC appearing in numerous Theater and Television productions including Oliver, Gypsy, the national company of The Rothchild’s and The Grassharp and Seesaw on Broadway.
He has just returned from the Schloßfestspiele in Zwingenberg, Germany where he played Eddie/Dr. Scott in Rocky Horror Show.
Other Musical Theater credits include Berger in Hair, Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, The Big Bopper in Buddy the Musical, Schrank in West Side Story at the Salzburger Festspiele, Vince Fontaine/Teen angel in Grease Tommy, Footloose, Jekyll & Hyde, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Charlie in Over the Threshhold, the Rock Tenor in Bernsteins Mass with the Tonkünstler Orchester.
Theater Productions include Jamie in Territory, Ben in IZ, Leon/Nick in Speaking In Tongues, Frank in How the Other Half Loves, Winston in 1984, Isaac in Disgraced, Richard Ehrlich in Time Stands Still, Martin Sterneck in Gabriel Barylli’s Chickenshit (Butterbrot), Yvan in ART.
In recent years he enjoyed critical success in the acclaimed productions of The Invisible Hand as Nick Bright and The Who & the What as Eli and in Building the Wall at Theater Drachengasse.
Film credits include Tootsie, The Godfather, Manhattan, Im weißen Rössl – Wehe du singst!, Thank You For Not Bombing.
In 1999 and 2000 he represented Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest as the composer of the songs Reflection and All To You.
He is also the Producer of, and plays “Jake” in the touring show The Blues Brothers Are Back.
Dave studied acting in New York with Jack Waltzer and plays piano, guitar, and percussion.
He is currently touring with this own company, selling out to audiences across Europe in The Magic of ABBA Show.
Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger is Chloe Girard
Bronwynn was born in America, grew up in Australia and came to Austria in 1992. She received her BA in Theater and Drama Studies in 1990 from Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Since then she has worked on stage and screen (in German and English) for over 30 years as an actor and improviser with the English Lovers, Orcas Island Project, TAG Impro All Stars and vienna theatre project amongst others, as well as being a Voice Over Artist and Acting Teacher, and from 2001–2024 she was also a CliniClown. She has had the joy of performing and teaching improvisation and acting at countless renowned theater festivals all over the world.
She graduated from the 4-year Feldenkrais International Training Program (2015–2019) at the Feldenkrais Institute in Vienna. In 2021 she graduated from the advanced training program called Child’Space (2019–2021), created by Dr. Chava Shelhav, specializing in the needs and development of babies and children from birth to independent walking. She is also a qualified Pregnant Pauses® teacher and offers these classes upon request.
She teaches Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) group lessons as part of the curriculum at the Vienna English Theater Academy (VETA) from 2019–2024, and the Bilingual Schauspiel Academy beginning in 2024, as well as open classes at Schule des Theaters since 2017.
In May 2020 she began teaching ATM classes every Sunday live online via Zoom. She also teaches these group lessons as part of Theater Festival Programs, either in person or online (Babylon in Italy, Törn and IFO in Germany, Vintage Improv and the Tennessee Arts Festival in the USA).
In 2019 she opened her private practice in Vienna where she also offers individual Functional Integration lessons, as well as Child’Space sessions for families.
Currently she lives in Vienna with her husband and close to her two adult kiddos.
A short note from the director and producer...
We look forward to welcoming you to the performances in 2026. Thank you for joining us on this journey of discovery. This story continues to live on — in opportunity, in imagination, and in hope.
In the meantime, always feel free to follow us on social media for daily updates on what’s happening with this and other and shows.
It is always an absolute privilege to tell stories that matter. We wish everyone, everywhere, the chance to find their place in the world—to be happy, accepted, and free to live, laugh, love, and dance to their own tune.
With warmth and hope,
Joanna
„Und wenn ich heimkomm’ nach vielen Jahren, ist alles fremd — und doch mein eigen.” (And when I return home after many years, everything is strange — and yet my own.) Rossegger
„Das Haus, aus dem wir stammen, bleibt immer in uns.“ (The house we come from always remains within us.) Grillparzer
All posters, flyers, trailers and interviews were created by
Gernot Ottowitz Medienproduktion
Please contact office@viennatheatreproject.at
for contact details.
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