Der Herr Karl is a play written by Helmut Qualtinger and Carl Merz. It’s currently shown in the Kammerspiele, directed by Herbert Föttinger and starring Martin Zauner [Sorry, all links, apart from the one for Helmut Qualtinger, are in German].

Plot:
The play is an hour long monologue by Karl (Martin Zauner): He looks back at his life, starting with the end of World War One until the end of World War Two.
Karl is one of the most iconic figures in Austrian cultural history, seemingly characterising a whole generation of Austrians who turned out to be extremely opportunistic and on its first broadcast in 1961 finally breaching the silence surrounding Austrian involvement in WWII.

I had never seen the entire play before, I only knew excerpts. And it was a good thing that I finally did see it, though I probably saw it in the worst version.

That I wasn’t happy with the play is not Martin Zauner’s fault. His Karl is very good, rather more aggressive than what you’re used to (if you’ve seen Qualtinger int he role), but it works and it works well.

It’s also not the fault of the play itself, which is brilliant, even though I don’t identify myself with Karl and his “Austrian-ness” at all. Still, I can recognise that the same mechanisms are still at work today, that there are still more than a few opportunists who go out and vote for whoever and I’m pretty sure that some people did recognise themselves (or at least their parents/grandparents) in it.

No, the blame is to be laid entirely at the staging: The stage design was awful: Bright white, with only the big letters you can see above proclaiming the title to relieve your eyes (seriously, even if the play is short, try looking for an hour at a bright light).

The play was interrupted by loud music for a few seconds every time the director thought that Karl was making a particular point, which was extremely disruptive and annoying (at least at the same time, the stage also went dark which probably kept my eyes from taking permanent damage). In the end I stopped listening because I knew that the music would pull me out of the play again anyway.

[From the original.]

Summarising: Probably much better to get the DVD and watch Qualtinger himself.