TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS

Remember the good old times… But then, even they were not always as good as they seemed, which is what gives Horváth’s play, which dates from the late 1920s, a painful contemporary relevance. Things are not as they should be – neither out in the Wachau valley nor on a certain quiet street in Vienna’s 8^th District, neither on the shores of the blue Danube nor at the wine tavern. Gambler Alfred has just broken up with tobacconist Valerie, who is considerably older than him, when he meets Marianne, whose father runs a toy store in the 8^th Dicstrict. Marianne is newly engaged to Oskar the butcher, but she falls head over heels in love with Alfred and cuts all ties to her father and her fiancé. The couple’s happiness does not last: they soon run out of money and Alfred is fed up with taking care of their little child, so he sends him to live with his vicious relatives in the Wachau valley. Marianne’s social descent begins, while Oskar is still stubbornly waiting for her...

Ödön von Horváth’s critical take on Vienna’s petty bourgeoisie, which he described as a “folk play”, premiered at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1931, directed by Heinz Hilpert – shortly after 30-year-old Horváth had been awarded the Kleist Prize.

Horváth (1901–1938) wrote his successful play in the late 1920s, when the Great Depression was causing disastrous unemployment. “Tales from the Vienna Woods” has become a key work of modern drama and retains its relevance and its unsettling effect on audiences. Just like the author’s plays “Faith, Hope and Charity” and “Kasimir and Karoline”, “Tales from the Vienna Woods” also presents people in precarious financial and emotional situations.

Following his successful production of “Youth Without God” in the 2011/2012 season, Artistic Director Carl Philip von Maldeghem again stages Horváth in Salzburg. He is aided by stage and costume designer Stefanie Seitz, with whom he also partnered in the major theatre project DIONYSIA at the Felsenreitschule in the autumn of 2017.

Duration: 2 h 25 min / one break

Tu 02/12/2019 07.30 pm