Das Spar­schwein / Die Kon­trakte des Kauf­manns

In the organizer's words:

The Piggy Bank / The Merchant's Contracts - by Eugène Labiche / Elfriede Jelinek - A vaudeville with the students of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielstudio - Premiere on March 2, 2024 - Schauspielhaus, Kleines HausSchauspiel

In 1864 in the French provinces. A group of friends and relatives meet once a week to play cards. The stakes are regularly put into the piggy bank, which is now to be slaughtered and the money spent together - in Paris, the "capital of the world". But what begins as a pleasure trip soon takes on the features of a ludicrous nightmare: A meal in a restaurant brings the villagers to the brink of ruin, they are mistakenly arrested as a gang of thieves, fall into the clutches of a shady matchmaker and ultimately end up on the street with no money. This could be the end of the story, were it not for the fact that the state of complete destitution awakens the potential for crime and anarchy.

The French playwright Eugène Labiche is one of the most famous representatives of vaudeville, a genre that oscillates between frivolous comedy with dance interludes and biting burlesque with contemporary melodies. Entertainment theater written for the pleasure-seeking crowd of the Belle Époque, but also a mirror in which society looks at itself - sometimes happy, sometimes disgusted and always interested in breaking taboos and rules. Director André Kaczmarczyk confronts Labiche's world of vaudeville with texts by probably the best-known contemporary playwright, Elfriede Jelinek. Her "Contracts of the Merchant" illuminates the thin skin of our supposedly secure existence from the perspective of the financial markets and their players. Jelinek's cold bankers, virtuoso lawyers and top managers come up against Labiche's nervous petty bourgeoisie and their trivial desires. The eight students of the Düsseldorf Drama Studio perform - in a vaudeville that celebrates the Belle Époque as much as it explores the fragility of our existence today.