As is well known, it is easier to be a crowd favorite in Austria. Whether sport, music or theatre, it doesn’t matter: autobiographies in the mid-20s are in great demand, biopics or, as is currently the case in Rabenhof, a theatrical road movie through the life of Anna Mabo. The singer-songwriter and director, who was just 25 years old, addresses this in a self-referential manner, as commissioned, in her first own piece, “Am Sand”, on the U4 route, Heiligenstadt – Hütteldorf.
tribute to yourself
Because it’s not that easy to tell regarding such a young life as a privileged child of prosperity, which is also confirmed by the five alter egos, like Mabo himself, wrapped in pink work overalls and blue wool hoods, Austrian Smurf and garden gnome variations, sometimes singing, sometimes gossip, here and there scene by scene into the soul landscapes of the twenty-something who lustily enjoys her life as well as her parents’ caviar, clearing out her apartment for it or throwing chewing gum into her mouth from the table machine and philosophizing regarding loneliness while peeling tangerines.
Life that “runs, runs, runs”, even if it moves between a bit of longing and a little suffering every day. “Am Sand” is a charmingly battered, lovingly ego-analytical musical homage to oneself, i.e.: the “universe”. The enjoyment lies above all in the moment, and that’s something.
