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Der
Zettelträger Papp A curtain raiser |
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Characters Version A: The butler informs Papp that whenever his mistress goes to the theatre, it annoys her that only the men are portrayed as heroic. Any heroines that do feature are always drawn either from the Middle Ages or Ancient Greece, never from the present day. For that reason his mistress is intrigued at the prospect of seeing “The 12 Girls in Uniform”. Papp, however, believes the lady will find the piece disappointing. Instead he recommends his own modern adaptation of Schiller’s “Maid of Orleans”. Schiller, he says, couldn’t write a good ending. All of his plays have poorly written endings. Hence the need for Papp’s adaptations. Version B: The butler tells Papp that whenever his mistress goes to the theatre, it annoys her that so many new plays overdo the sentimental and philosophical content, at the expense of riding and swordplay. Papp begs to differ: there are too many actors who can ride a horse in a rather jaded manner but have a “swashbuckling”, not to say ”butchering” approach to their lines. That is the kind of “swordplay” he, as an author, can do without. He recommends to her ladyship’s attention his own adaptations of Schiller, especially “Don Carlos”, and tells the amused butler that he was personally acquainted with Goethe, Schiller and Lessing, and would have been a friend of Shakespeare’s too if the Bard hadn’t unfortunately died before Papp went on the stage. He then recites “To Be or Not to Be” with excessive pathos and finally borrows the butler’s pocket-book for use as a theatrical prop before disappearing, never to return. |
The
Plays of Johann Nestroy. A directory of synopses prepared by Julian
Forsyth & Zoe Svenson. Funded by the Austrian Cultural Forum and Arts Council England. © Moving Theatre 2004 |