A steel framework, like an arena or a cage, plus neon lights: coldness wherever you look can be found in Florian Parbs’ stage design. The world as an eternal construction site revolves on the revolving stage in the theater. The wheel of history also keeps turning without us seeming to learn anything: “Again the devil’s war is racing; once once more the country is steaming in smoke and blood” (Ottokar). Whether in the 13th century, as the Bohemian king Ottokar II Premysl, Grillparzer’s historical role model, rivaled Rudolf von Habsburg in the 19th century, when Prince Metternich seized state power – once morest whose system Grillparzer actually took out his sharp pen – or in the fateful election year of 2024: “King Ottokar’s luck and End” might also have been an extra-long special broadcast from ZiB. The piece is so oppressively timeless that director Stephanie Mohr lets it speak for itself without incorporating current references.
Ostensibly, the men are in charge: Ottokar, driven by possession and power. And Rudolf, who – unexpectedly – is elected emperor in his place and gives him the shame of his life: Kneeling in front of everyone, Ottokar receives his fief from him.
Women who assert themselves
The truth, however, is spoken by the women: the wise Margarethe, rejected by Ottokar for lack of an heir and exchanged for the younger Kunigunde, who unexpectedly stands up to him.
Grillparzer’s text is a colossus that the ensemble lifts with combined strength and gives it admirable lightness. Christian Taubenheim is terrific as the arrogant, complacent Ottokar. When he hisses, “But it is mine,” this “mine” contains all the greed in the world and the narcissist’s fear of being robbed of it. Until the quick-tempered person collapses into a miserable heap at the end like a punctured balloon.
Helmuth Häusler as “Rudolf” is his patronizing, amical counterpart, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. While the men jockey for power, the women, who have long since figured out the game, know regarding their quiet strength. Proud, lascivious and casually cheeky, Lorena Emmi Mayer as Kunigunde lets her husband act out, punishes him with a slap on the hand like a mother would her naughty child and incites him. Katharina Hofmann is the wise warner Margarethe, who faces her disgrace as an abandoned woman with dignity. Versatile in several supporting roles, Joël Dufey and Jonatan Fidus Blomeier – acting students at Bruckner University – enrich the strong ensemble: Horst Heiss, Alexander Julian Meile, Benedikt Steiner (the Rosenberge), Cecilia Pérez as the dropped Bertha, Angela Waidmann (chambermaid Elisabeth), Christian Higer (Chancellor Braun von Olomouc), Sebastian Hufschmidt (Burgrave Friedrich Zollern), Lutz Zeidler (old Merenberg), Jakob Kajetan Hofbauer (his son), Jan Nikolaus Cerha (Mayor of Vienna), Nataya Sam (Lady in Chamber) and Julian Sigl (multiple knightly ). All of them are the peoples (with Styrian hat, costumes: Nini von Selzam) or a choir that (Ottokar von Hornek’s) homage to Austria rains down from the gallery onto the regents. The ominous atmosphere of a world in tilt is captured by the dissonant sounds of Wolfgang Schlögl’s incidental music on two prepared grand pianos in the middle of the stage – one of them tilted at an angle – which are also worked on with a booming, martial percussive force. The lamentations of the ladies, on the other hand, are haunting in their tenderness. Long applause for a long but strong evening.
Conclusion: A powerful evening – strong and challenging.
“King Ottokar’s happiness and end”: Tragedy by Franz Grillparzer, Schauspielhaus Linz, until July 3rd, www.landestheater-linz.at
Author
Karin Schütze
Culture editor
Karin Schütze
