At Jelinek’s ‘Under Animals,’ one squeak speaks louder than a thousand words
Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Elfriede Jelinek’s latest play about financial scandals has premiered at Vienna’s Burgtheater.
- The four-hour production features Sebastian Rudolph as a cow and uses animal voices to satirize social and economic themes.
- The review says the performance runs too long, with the theater requiring it to end at 10 p.m.
A squeak can apparently say more than a thousand words in Elfriede Jelinek’s latest financial-scandal play, now showing at Vienna’s Burgtheater. The production runs for four hours, but the review calls that time “well invested.”
Sebastian Rudolph plays a cow. His fellow cows complain that they are now being bred with machines, while admitting they do not understand exactly how it works because they have no eyes at the back.
The donkey, however, must be cut. The production takes too long, and the routes in Vienna are apparently longer too. Even small “donkey” chants from the audience cannot change the ending, because the Burgtheater insists that the performance finish at 10 p.m.
The review also notes a difference in the Vienna audience: it proves generous when showing automobile billionaire Ferdinand Porsche that Austria is not hostile to the rich.
About this summary
Originally published by Der Standard in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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