Peter Turrini is an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n leftist playwright.

Born in Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

, Turrini has been writing since 1971, when his play Rozznjogd premiered at the Volkstheater, Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. A versatile author, he has written plays, screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

s, poems, and essays. Rather than presenting an authentic picture of reality, in Turrini's understanding it is the function of the theatre to exaggerate and, by doing so, to raise the consciousness of the public.

He lives in Vienna and Retz

Retz

Retz is a town with a population of 4,168 in the district of Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, Austria.- Geography :Retz is located in the north western Weinviertel in Lower Austria. The municipality's area covers 45,01 km². 11.83 percent of this area is forested...

, Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

.

Selected dramas

• Rozznjogd (1971)
• Sauschlachten (1972)
• Kindsmord (1973)
• Josef und Maria (1980; revised version, 1999)
• Die Bürger
  Die Burger
  Die Burger is a daily Afrikaans language newspaper, published by Naspers. By 2008, it had a circulation of 91,665 in the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa...
  
  (1981)
• Die Minderleister (1988)
• Tod und Teufel (1990)
• Alpenglühen (1993)
• Die Schlacht um Wien (1995)
• Tod und Teufel (1999) (opera
  Opera
  Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
  
  , with music by Gerd Kühr
  Gerd Kühr
  Gerd Kühr, also Gerd Kuhr, is an Austrian conductor, composer of classical music and academic teacher....
  
  )
• Die Eröffnung (2000)
• Ich liebe dieses Land (2001)
• Der Riese vom Steinfeld (2002) (opera, with music by Friedrich Cerha
  Friedrich Cerha
  Friedrich Cerha is an Austrian composer and conductor.-Biography:Cerha was born in Vienna.He received his education at the Viennese Music Academy and at the University of Vienna...
  
  )
• Bei Einbruch der Dunkelheit (2005)
• Jedem das Seine
  Jedem das Seine
  "'" is a German translation of "'", the Latin phrase meaning "to each his own" or "to each what he deserves."- Antiquity :The Latin phrase goes back to an old Greek principle of justice which translates literally into English as "to each his own"...
  
  (co-authored with Silke Hassler) (2007)

Television

• Die Alpensaga
  Die Alpensaga
  Die Alpensaga is an Austrian television series....
  
  (1974–79) (mini-series)
• Die Arbeitersaga (1988–90) (mini-series)

Further reading

• Peter Turrini - Schriftsteller; Kämpfer, Künstler, Narr und Bürger, ed. Klaus Amann (Vienna: Residenz Verlag 2007) (ISBN 9783701730582).