Jedermann (Everyman)

Jedermann (Everyman) Review

The morality play Jedermann (Everyman), by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is famously performed annually (in German) in the front courtyard of the Dom (cathedral). This is a spine-tingling presentation, and few of the thousands packing the plaza are unmoved when at the height of the banquet the voice of Death is heard calling "Jedermann—Jedermann—Jed-er-mann" from the Franziskanerkirche tower, and is then followed with echoes of voices from other steeples and from atop the Fortress Hohensalzburg. As the sun sets, the doors of the great cathedral hover open and the sounds of its organ announce the salvation of Everyman's soul.