Der Raub der Sabinerinnen (THE ABDUCTION OF THE SABINE WOMEN)

THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN – that is the title of the Ancient Roman tragedy the small-town high school teacher Mr Gollwitz wrote when he was a student. He keeps it hidden from his wife. By chance, the theatre director Striese, who is passing through with his travelling play company, finds out about this secret play and can already see the sensation in his mind’s eye. He persuades Gollwitz to allow him to perform it. Flattered, the teacher agrees under the condition that he remains anonymous. When the audience starts booing in Act 2 the entire event is on the brink of mayhem. The teacher’s middle-class existence, including his family and his parrot, threatens to collapse and the catastrophe seems inevitable. If not for the women who are at the right place at the right time … Gollwitz and Striese risk everything for the sake of their theatrical obsession and in doing so set off a crisis. But despite all crises, THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN ends up being a great success after all and to this day the comedy about the Roman tragedy is regarded as a love letter to the theatre.

Almost 140 years after the brothers Franz and Paul Schönthan had written their farce, two women – director Anita Vulesica, who already had great success with DER FISKUS (by Felicia Zeller) at Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz, and the young author Svenja Viola Bungarten – take on the famous comedy classic.