Auf der Landstraße, da gibt’s a Hetz! [Landstraße is a street in Vienna, Hetz used to be an animal fighting arena in the area which burnt down. So the title translates to “On the Landstraße, there’s an animal fighting arena”, written in a bit of dialect.]
Director: Susita Fink
Writer: Susita Fink, Claudia Hisberger
Cast: Walter Kukla, Susa Kratsch, Claudia Hisberger

Plot:
An old grandmother is found, appearing to have hung herself. But when the local police officer (Walter Kukla) looks at it more closely, he is convinced that this was foul play. As he tries to uncover what happened, he is joined by the actress Fanny (Susa Kratsch) who wants to help him figure things out. And as he had a crush on her for a while already, he doesn’t mind at all. As the plot (based on real cases) unfolds, you are led through the city by an accordion player (Walther Soyka), moving from one original setting to another to discover not only the historical circumstances, but the city itself.

I live in the Landstraße area, so when a friend proposed that we should see the play (she lives here, too), I was quick to say yes. I really love the idea of putting the city itself in a historical context and uncovering it in that way. The play itself falls a little behind the concept, but that didn’t matter in the slightest. I’d be happy to do this again.

I know that there are huge party of Vienna I don’t know, but I did think that my own quarter would be a little more familiar to me. Well. I got to see many new places the day of the play and they were all amazing. I now have about five locations I really would like an apartment at in pretty much the immediate vicinity of my current apartment.

Discovering all of this really was the best part of the evening. The play itself was fine and very well-researched but not great. They really tried to use all the jargon of the time and it did feel a little forced sometimes. A little less of that might have made it seem more natural. And I have to admit that I did lose the plot for a moment in the middle and was a little confused. I don’t know if that was due to confusing writing or a lack of concentration on my part. [Something that really bugged me about it, though, was that they had stuffed a pillow under the policeman’s shirt and played his belly for laughs. Haha. It is so funny when a person has a belly.]

I really liked that they also had puppets they played with. Since there are only three actors in the play (plus a couple of kids and the very attractive accordion player), it was a nice way to get a bit more character variety that way. And the puppets themselves were pretty cool and creative.

In any case, I hope they do something like this again next year. I’ll certainly keep my eye out for it.

Summarizing: Recommended to all locals and not-so-locals.