Music theatre by Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer and QuadriCor
“I’m supposed to tell you she’s not coming. I’m supposed to tell you how it is. I’m supposed to say it normally. Not too directly, and definitely not sentimentally. Now it’s my turn. Now I have to do it. The messenger. Here I am, standing in front of you with this… thing. With this message.”
What does it mean to deliver a message? In BOTENSTOFFE, theatre and music meet on equal footing. A messenger and a horn quartet reinterpret some of the most significant messenger speeches in literature. Whether from antiquity, Shakespeare, or everyday private life, the seemingly simple act of delivering a message increasingly becomes a challenge. Between word and sound, seriousness and irony, a multilayered theatrical evening unfolds—exploring the limits of what can be said.
Text and direction: Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer
Performance: Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer, QuadriCor
Composition and arrangement: Jernej Cigler, Christoph Eß, Kerry Turner
Set design: Vanessa Maria Sgarra
Artistic collaboration: Nellie Fischer-Benson
Theater Kosmos (Bregenz)
Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer is an Austrian actor, author, and filmmaker. He was born in 1995 in Feldkirch and received his training at the University of Music and Theatre Hamburg.
During his studies, he already gained extensive stage experience, performing at venues such as the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, the Thalia Theater, and Kampnagel. This was followed by further engagements and guest performances, including at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and Schauspiel Leipzig. From 2019 to 2022, he was a permanent ensemble member at Schauspiel Hannover, where he appeared in numerous productions and further refined his profile as a versatile actor.
Alongside his work on stage, Doppelbauer has continuously developed his own artistic projects. As an author, he combines language with musical and performative elements, seeking new forms of storytelling. His texts are characterized by subtle humor, precise observation, and a particular interest in nuance and moments of communication.
An important milestone in his career is the award-winning feature film Letzter Abend (2023), in which he was involved as an actor, co-writer, and producer. For this film, he received the First Look Award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2022 and the Creative Energy Award at the Emden/Norderney Film Festival in 2023. In 2026, he will be awarded the Grimme Prize for his performance in the series Tschappel.
Botenstoffe – Nachrichten in Dur und Moll is a music theatre piece created in 2026 by Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer, written, developed, and performed in close collaboration with the horn quartet QuadriCor. The project is marked by a search for a distinctive form of interplay between language and music. The horns are far more than accompaniment: they comment, contradict, amplify, or subvert what is being said, thus becoming independent actors on stage. Words and sounds stand side by side on equal footing, continually opening up new layers of meaning.
A striking feature of the work is its playful approach to the material: grand narratives meet everyday observations, pathos shifts into irony, and existential questions are explored with a light touch and subtle humor. The result is an evening that does not take itself entirely seriously—and precisely in this lies its depth: a humorous experiment about communication, misunderstanding, and the power of music.
Botenstoffe is therefore not only a piece about delivering messages, but also about failing to do so—and about the beauty that lies precisely within that attempt.