Academy Theater

Strindberg and Monty Python in marital hell

"Egal": A festival of actors with Michael Waechter and Caroline Peters

(Bild: Burgtheater/ (c) Monika Rittershaus)

"Egal" and "Ellen Babić": two one-act plays by Marius von Mayenburg as highly digestible acting fodder at the Akademietheater.

The well-constructed play - gratefully called a "well-made play" by the English and Americans - has a miserable reputation in brain-heavy German theater. But it saves balance sheets and offers the best acting fodder, which is also readily consumed by the greats. In this case by the top actress Caroline Peters, who returns to the castle after a long absence in the first of two one-act plays by the German Marius von Mayenburg.

There should be no illusions about the literary quality of what is on offer. If you compare it with the American model, for example, the question "To Albee or not to Albee" is quickly answered.

But it is worth following the married couple in the domestic purgatory called "Egal". The successful wife has returned home from a business trip, while the husband has worn himself out with the children. The story is then told again, but with the roles reversed, then back to the original constellation.

It could be a little less convoluted. But what head dramaturge Thomas Jonigk sets in motion on the empty front stage in his Viennese directorial debut is quite something: the best art of conversation, turned into the absurd with elegant slapstick, a hybrid of Sartre, Strindberg and Monty Python. And the unbridled yet highly disciplined virtuosity displayed by Caroline Peters and Michael Waechter is first-class.

After the interval - the two one-act plays will also be performed separately in future - the #Metoo thriller "Ellen Babić" explores the abysses of a lesbian relationship between a teacher and pupil with the involvement of the sleazy principal. Who is the good guy, who is the culprit? In the hunt for ever new twists and turns, the text is somewhat overambitious. But Dörte Lyssewski, Maresi Riegner and Jörg Ratjen play away many objections.