Culture
In love with your own math teacher, having sex for the first time or driving to Georgia: At the diary slam in the Rabenhoftheater, no new texts are presented, but old diary entries. Organizer Diana Köhle is always looking for new contributions.
Since 2013, Diana Köhle has organized over 400 diary slams throughout Austria. After twelve years at the TAG Theater on Gumpendorfer Straße, the diary enthusiast moved to the Rabenhof Theater this fall. Anyone who is willing to perform in front of an audience and has not thrown away their recordings out of embarrassment can take part.
Audience decides who wins
Table of Contents
At each event, four candidates compete against each other in two rounds. The audience decides who wins by the volume of their applause. The only rule: texts presented must be at least five years old. “If you want to hug your former self, then that’s not the right thing to do. Rather, if you can smile a little at yourself, then you’ve come to the right place,” explains organizer Diana Köhle.
Event notice
“Diary Slam” in the Rabenhof Theater, once a month. The next date is January 18, 2026.
Diana Köhle does not know the texts presented beforehand. Reports about hitchhiking trips throughout Europe follow stories about first political experiences in the 1980s. At the most recent Rabenhof appearance, 40-year-old Mia wins with a poem made up of mathematical formulas for her first crush, the math teacher at the time: “Love in general is like solving an equation: without it, my life would be undefined.”
“Dear Diary, …”
31-year-old Lisa was registered by a friend after her first Slam visit. In her diary entries she writes about various boys with whom she was in love between the ages of nine and 17, visits to the Prater and sports week experiences. “Dear diary, I’m slowly no longer knowing what I can believe in my feelings and what I can’t.” She admits on stage that she can’t remember many of the boys anymore.
Looking for new candidates
664 participants have already read out their diary entries. There is no age limit; the oldest participant so far was born in 1925. Finding willing speakers is not always easy. “It is my main job to always find new participants, all over Austria,” says Köhle. Volunteers can register online. During the show she searches the audience for busy diary writers. She motivates everyone else: “It’s never too late to write a diary.”
