Hell on earth

It is the 760,839,000th anniversary of the creation of the world. There is no real mood for celebration in heaven - an all-out war threatens to destroy everything. Only a good God can help, says an advertisement from the League of Nations. God, long since retired, discontentedly sends Peter to Geneva with two angels. But even for divine emissaries, times are hard - without baroque pomp, without authority, without a valid passport. After a bomb explodes in the meeting room of the League of Nations, all three end up in an insane asylum. Here they are not the only ones who have gone mad in the world. In the end, it is the devil, as head of the poison gas works, who prevents the war and the destruction of Europe and is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Who else would buy weapons in a deserted world?

The Viennese writer Maria Lazar (1895-1948), forgotten, ignored and repressed until a few years ago, is one of the most clear-sighted and linguistically brilliant voices in Europe and has experienced a breathtaking renaissance in recent years. Until 2022, her manuscripts - including unperformed plays - lay unread for several decades, locked away in boxes in her granddaughter's apartment in England.

A century later, director, musician and actress Anna Marboe, one of Austria's most versatile young artists, sets out on the trail of this radical political satirist and premieres a bitingly funny and musical dystopia.

"Such an idiosyncratic and powerful language has not been heard for a long time ... a small sensation."
Michael Rohrwasser, Wiener Zeitung

"One wonders why and how the work could have escaped attention for a century."
Sandra Kerschbaumer, F.A.Z.