Theater premiere in Vienna | EUROtoday

Wien, now the federal capital of the Republic of Austria because the fall of the Habsburgs on the finish of the First World War, had devoted itself to social housing beneath town governments, which had all the time been social democratic till February 1934 (therefore additionally lovingly and mockingly known as “Red Vienna”). As a part of this constructing program, a neighborhood constructing with virtually 200 and fifty flats was constructed within the Brigittenau district, Vienna’s twentieth district, which was opened in 1924 beneath the title “Robert Blum-Hof”. This title was not chosen by likelihood, as a result of close to the location in 1848, instantly after the suppression of the October Revolution by Imperial Habsburg troops, the member of the Frankfurt National Assembly Robert Blum was sentenced to dying after a greater than ridiculous present trial and was summarily shot. He was removed from the one one to undergo this destiny.

Revolution in full swing

Peter Turrini’s new play “It must be divorced” makes an attempt to offer a voice to the numerous politically murdered individuals and to convey them again into public reminiscence. After a couple of preliminary performances of this co-production on the summer time Raimundspiele Gutenstein in Lower Austria, the piece (within the “Josefstadt version”) now premiered on the Vienna Theater in der Josefstadt. So the yr is 1848, and whereas the March Revolution is in full swing, the Habsburgs and their court docket are fleeing the capital and the occasional alternate of gunfire can nonetheless be heard, the person who got here from the provinces after the starvation winter of ’47/’48 decides to come back to Vienna Adam Holzapfel not needs to be a fusilier for the emperor. So he turns into caretaker in a small theater the place Ferdinand Raimund’s “The Girl from the Fairy World or The Farmer as a Millionaire” is being rehearsed throughout the revolutionary occasions.

He does his greatest

Günter Franzmeier performs this Holzapfel, narrator of the night, who guides us, the viewers, via the occasions as much as the suppression of the final revolution up to now within the Danube metropolis, with excellent verve. In the theatrical microcosm he meets all types of unusual characters. For instance, Ferdinand Tassié, director of the Raimund manufacturing, within the function of Thomas Frank is allowed to offer his greatest and provides loads. Tassié actually needs to point out this Raimund sport so as to cover allusions to the state of affairs on the earth outdoors from the censors. He not lives to see the opening night time, which has been postponed repeatedly. His bullet-riddled physique can simply be dragged to the theater to keep away from additional mutilation.

Or the younger actress Zäzilie Wagner, who falls in love with a legislation pupil who has fled to the theater from Metternich’s captors. He, in flip, “can read” and subsequently instantly research a job. Both, embodied with admirable dedication by Johanna Mahaffy and Julian Valerio Rehrl, are sentenced to dying in the direction of the top; no less than he’s saved by his father, a wealthy material service provider, via bribery.

But Zäzilie suspects that she is not going to survive, regardless of her lover’s assurances. She won’t ever be capable of fulfill her long-saved dream of climbing to heaven on the Montgolfière. The unlucky lady then solely sings “Little Brother Fine” in a shaky voice – till the sunshine goes out.

The easy stage design, which hardly modifications regardless of the revolving stage – designed by Miriam Busch, who can be liable for the costumes which might be fairly good for Raimund’s time – helps the initially hopeful, then determined temper of the piece. Director Stephanie Mohr, now fairly rightly an professional on Turrini productions, levels his 1848 drama sensitively, movingly, touchingly and with an general nice ensemble, in order that the virtually hundred minute length virtually flies by. After a brief dry spell, now one other Turrini night that we are able to wholeheartedly advocate.