Staatsschauspieler* Bruscon has collated a comedy, The Wheel of History, comprising all other comedies according to him. The premiere shall take place at the depraved dance hall of "The Black Stag," an inn in a small Austrian village called Utzbach. Bruscon's wife, son, and daughter are serving as co-actors.
*a title the government awards to deserved actors
The guy is a creep tyrannizing both the innkeeper and his family. The first one is because he wants to eat Frittatensuppe, a bouillon with strips of pancake, in the early afternoon while the innkeeper and his family are busy making blutwurst (blood sausage). When Bruscon asks him, "Do you have your blutwurst day once a week?" the answer is, "No, but always on Tuesdays."
Frittatensuppe (©Wikipedia/RobertK) |
During rehearsals of the play with his children, he drives out their love of acting. In recurring phrases, he alternately cleans up their acting talent, whereas he always highlights himself as a great "state actor" and demands his children's servant behavior. He often gets entangled in contradictory statements without realizing it, saying to his son, "You are my greatest disappointment, you know that, but you never disappointed me; you are my most useful."
The eerie scene where Lady Churchill meets Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister at the time of Napoleon, takes half an hour to rehearse, "Naturally, her hat pin must get loose before the hat falls to the ground."
Bruscon eating Frittatensuppe in the presence of his family (©Theater Freiburg) |
In the end, with Atwenger's derogation granting a maximum of ten minutes of darkness, the theater group is in costumes peeping through the curtain, daring covert glances as the spectators arrive. A heavy thunderstorm passes, and the audience leaves the dance hall following a great crash of thunder. A flash of lightning has set the parish house on fire. Good for them, for the roof above starts to drip, leaving Bruscon disappointed on stage in the rain.
I wish you all a Happy* New Year.
*my German friends will read "Healthy."
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