Werner Schwab died 10 years ago. In commemoration of this brilliant Austrian dramatist, TheaterUnser is staging his play “Die Präsidentinnen” at the SKY Media Loft.

These are people who think they know it all and can boss everyone around. It’s a form of megalomania. I grew up in a family of presidents.
Werner Schwab

Werner Schwab burst onto the German-speaking theater scene like a shooting star in the early ‘90s. In only three years, he wrote 15 plays that draw a portrait blending together the extremes of petit bourgeois conformism, megalomania and hypocrisy, and whose most remarkable feature is the phenomenal audacity of its verbal imagery. His big breakthrough came in 1991 with the premiere of the radical comedy “Volksvernichtung oder Meine Leber ist sinnlos” at the Münchner Kammerspielen. The recipient of numerous awards, Schwab became the most-produced playwright of his day in German-speaking Europe. On New Year’s Eve 1993-94, alcohol poisoning brought his life to a premature end. He was only 35 years old.

“Die Präsidentinnen,” a drama that premiered at the Künstlerhaus in 1990 and was broadcast as a radio play in 1992, examines the lives of Erna, Grete and Mariedl, three women of very modest, lower-middle-class circumstances. Through their use of language, they stylize themselves into what they consider to be impressive personalities—into presidents—in an attempt to escape their miserable existence.

Erna, a prude who receives a meager monthly pension, has, contrary to her otherwise frugal ways, splurged on a color TV that lets her bring the whole wide world into her wretched little abode. Reverently she follows the Papal Mass while her thoughts turn to the Catholic butcher Wottila, whose spiced liver loaf—permanently discount-priced—is the only thing in Erna’s life that satisfies her carnal lust.

Grete—once widowed, once divorced—lives alone with her dachshund Lydia after her daughter Hannelore emigrated to Australia to escape her father’s sexual harassment. Even though Grete showed understanding for her husband’s behavior, he deserted her once Hannelore was gone.

Mariedl is a deeply religious woman who lives alone. Having made her calling into a career, she specializes in unclogging stopped-up toilets and eschews rubber gloves while going about her handiwork—after all, since she otherwise has no opportunity to come into contact with people, she can at least feel a certain closeness and intimacy in this way.

Once Erna and Grete have elaborated the details of their past, the petit bourgeois parlor is turned into a linguistic arena in which the competition to make the big ascent up the social ladder in staged. Erna sees herself married to Wottila and having become proprietress of the butcher shop; Grete as wife of handsome musician Freddy and a lady of the manor, whereby her dachshund also advances to the rank of watchdog. Mariedl, who is not taken seriously by the other two and is relegated to the lowest rung of the social hierarchy, finally takes Erna and Grete’s fantasy scenarios and brings them to a repugnantly nasty conclusion.

Cast: Eike Baum, Simone Neumayr, Thomas Schächl
Director: Rudi Müllehner
Music: Karl Lindner
Set/Costumes: Andreas Baumgartner
Dramaturgy: Cornelia Metschitzer

Performance Dates
Friday, April 2, 2004 (Premiere)
Sunday, April 4, 2004
Wednesday, April 7, 2004
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Friday, April 9, 2004
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Monday, April 12, 2004
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Friday, April 16, 2004
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Monday, April 19, 2004
Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Performance Begins
7:30 PM

Venue
SKY Media Loft

Advance Sale
Ars Electronica Center
Hauptstraße 2
4040 Linz, Austria
Tuesday to Sunday, 10 AM to 5 PM

Ticket Prices
Advance sale: 14 €
Advance sale (discount): 12 €
On the evening of the performance and reservations: 16 €
On the evening of the performance and reservations (discount): 14 €

Reservations
E-mail: mail@theaterunser.at
Phone: 0699/11225136