Lesson 01
Show how you know
The strongest investigative stage work explains the reporting method, not only the finding.
Case 09 / live journalism case
Dossier Live
An Austrian investigative newsroom turns complex investigations into staged public encounters.
Location
Austria
Period
Documented in 2025
Organisation
DOSSIER
Format
Investigative performance
// IN A NUTSHELL
What this case proves
Austria's investigative journalism translated into theatrical public evidence: not a panel, not a reading, but a staged explanation of how power works and how reporting uncovers it.
// BACKGROUND
Before the room filled
Context 01
DOSSIER is an independent, non-profit Austrian newsroom focused on investigative and data journalism.
Context 02
Its stage work grew from collaborations with theatre partners that wanted to lift investigations into public performance.
Context 03
Dossier Live is the compact lecture-performance branch: a performative TED-talk structure where investigative research, acting, data, and editorial process are fused.
// CASE THESIS
Why it belongs in the field
The case belongs because it shows investigative journalism as a theatrical system of power, not just a presentation of findings.
DOSSIER regularly brings investigative journalism to the stage.
The work includes collaborations with theatres around disinformation, propaganda, and corporate power.
It names Die Redaktion with the Volkstheater as a flagship production dramatizing DOSSIER's OMV investigation.
Each event blends conversation, performance, and live music around how truth is produced.
// HOW IT WORKS
The format has mechanics
Mechanic 01
One investigation becomes a live piece in which a journalist presents facts, documents, methods, and reporting dilemmas.
Mechanic 02
Actors stage scenes from the investigation while the journalist keeps the evidence chain visible.
Mechanic 03
Audience conversations after the performance make the process of knowing part of the event.
// FORMAT STRUCTURE
Format first. Productions inside.
Type tags
High-production/performance
Community/participatory
Nested events / productions
// PRODUCTION FILE
How it moved through time
01
Earlier stage collaborations included Die Recherche-Show, Heldenplatze, and Aufstieg und Fall des Herrn Rene Benko.
02
DOSSIER live - Propaganda was staged at Schauspielhaus Wien in June and October 2025.
03
Pseudorama, developed with DARUM and Volkstheater Wien, connected DOSSIER's propaganda and disinformation research to an analog VR theatre experience.
// LESSONS
What the case teaches
Lesson 02
Actors need evidence boundaries
Performance can make a system legible, but only if the audience can tell what is documented, staged, or inferred.
Lesson 03
Members can meet the newsroom
The stage work also functions as audience development, giving supporters a public relationship with the investigation.
// BORROW
What travels
Investigative system on stage
Theatre collaboration
Live music plus conversation
Power as structure
// DO NOT COPY
What can break
Blurred evidence status
Villain theatre
Too much style around too little proof
// SOURCE TRAIL
Where the dossier points
// ALL 12 CASES
Same form, different room
