Rubey and Schwarz

Daring pairing on the “Restaurant” stage

Simon Schwarz and Manuel Rubey invite you to " Das Restaurant" several times in Upper Austria.

(Bild: Pertramer)

Manuel Rubey and Simon Schwarz are bringing their first cabaret show to Upper Austria as a double bill from March. In an interview with the "Krone" newspaper, the two explain why they don't perform in a nail salon and why it took so long for them to work together. 

As a double act, they have been making a highly successful podcast since June, and now Manuel Rubey and Simon Schwarz are joining forces on stage for the first time - with the cabaret play "Das Restaurant", which they wrote with the "Tagespresse" satirists Sebastian Huber and Jürgen Marschal. In it, the two open a no-frills restaurant in the provinces - which burns down. The search for the firebug leads them back into the past, into their innermost selves, and to the question of whether we are not all somehow little arsonists.

"Krone": You chose a restaurant as the setting for your play - why not a nail salon?
Simon Schwarz (laughs): We briefly considered nail salon, but decided against it because it's not quite believable that this is a wish of ours to open a nail salon in the countryside.

Was it a real wish of yours to open a salon?
Schwarz: Shortly after the lockdown, we actually had the idea of opening a restaurant. And I still don't think it's that stupid.
Manuel Rubey: When you're an actor and you haven't learned anything clever, you fall into the cliché of thinking that the only thing you could possibly do is open a restaurant. Which, of course, is also hubris (laughs) - and also nonsense.

You've been friends for years: Why did it take so long until your first collaboration?
 Rubey: Because I really used great tact to catch Simon at a weak moment and ask him if he could imagine going on stage with me. Because, with one brief exception (Schwarz played the Devil at the Salzburg Festival in 2013 and 2014, editor's note), he hasn't been on stage in the last 30 years.

Why not?
Schwarz: I like rehearsing, and I'm attracted by the process of creation, but not so much by being on stage.

How does he do as a stage partner?
Rubey: In my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined him being so great.
"Das Restaurant" sounds like a play. How much cabaret is in it
 Rubey: It could also be a play
Schwarz: It's more than that. I would say: a play within a play with an exit into life. In "Now" it's a form of double conférence in the tradition of old Austrian cabaret.

Stefan Weinberger"Das Restaurant": 22. 3. Linzer Musiktheater; 27. 4. Stadttheater Steyr; 25. 10. Posthof Linz; also in Wels, Leonding, Gmunden.

Date information: manuelrubey.com