ALS OB ES REGNEN WÜRDE

Goethe's Dr Faust wonders what holds the world together at its core. Well, what else – money. The old boy needn't have studied quite so much "with ardent effort". He should rather have asked: what does the world look like for an ordinary married couple when money grows all by itself in their own living room?"

Bruno and his wife Laura first have to come to terms with that. Which is easy enough at first, for although there's no explanation as to why 100 euros are suddenly lying on the little TV table, that doesn't trouble anyone much. The next morning, however, almost 1,500 euros are lying on the living-room floor. How did they get there? And why are they so instantly fascinated by the dosh?

After all, Bruno and Laura are committed socialists who would certainly never worship filthy lucre. But when it's suddenly just lying there in the living room within easy reach, even idealists discover that money has a damned magical pull. Perhaps even Goethe would have thought: why ask questions when I can simply pocket the cash?

Sebastian Thiéry is one of the most successful comedy writers of the 21st century. Time and again he manages to wrap really very serious subjects in absurdly funny stories. So see for yourselves whether the shower of money really is the blessing we all dream of.

PRESS

TIROLER TAGESZEITUNG(November 2023)

ALMOST-GENUINE SOCIALIST ON A SHOPPING SPREE
A feather-light comedy worth recommending: Als ob es regnen würde" at the Kallertheater

Bruno is almost a genuine socialist. He is fairly certainly an anaesthetist. And he resents the fact that he, who gently puts patients to sleep, ranks far behind the universally revered surgeons in terms of reputation. They, he says, are showered with gifts after operations. The high art of anaesthesia, by contrast, the ladies and gentlemen on the operating table simply sleep through. No thanks or recognition whatsoever, neither material nor otherwise!
Bruno's wife Laura, on the other hand, is a teacher through and through: a primary school head. She slaves away to help finance the high standard of living of this ageing yuppie couple (20 years of marriage!). For socialist Bruno donates part of his doctor's income to charity. Or so he says.
Sebastian Thiéry has built his comedy around this couple, long since settled into a well-worn routine. ...
Superbly cast, by the way: with Brigitte Jaufenthaler as Laura and Johannes Gabl as Bruno. Wini Gropper as the shady neighbour (aka Mr "Dattel") and Susanne Schartner as Hanna the cleaning lady (with a "lovverly" Hungarian accent) complete a genuinely funny quartet of performers.
Absurdity and tumbling twists and turns are to be expected, and they duly arrive. The punchlines land, sometimes more, sometimes less. A bit of amusing verbal innuendo is allowed too. ....
It is a pleasure to watch what the four of them manage to tailor from this feather-light theatrical material on the small stage: an 80-minute piece well worth recommending. For liberating laughs in between. Or simply to escape the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle that is starting to take hold everywhere.(mark)