Please note: this is a recording of spoken theatre, not an opera or musical.

Anna Gmeyner's play "Automat" dates from 1932 and was inspired by the technological innovations of her age as well as by the reactionary attitudes of the bourgeoisie. The provinicalist Adam saves the beautiful stranger Eva from suicide by drowning and takes her along to the "Automatenbüfett", the restaurant owned by his feisty wife. Eva's arrival is an attraction to this largely male community and the shrewd Adam knows how to use it to further his plans. Barbara Frey and Martin Zehetgruber had designed the eponymous outomat, which provides a looming backdrop to sometimes cringeworthily funny and sometimes heartrendingly sad encounters between the outstanding cast. The play proved a draw in major theatres in Hamburg, Berlin and Zurich before its author was forced to flee in the face of persecution by the National Socialists. This production is a true rediscovery.

Director Claudia Bauer and her enthusiastic cast translate PeterLicht’s radical rewriting of Molière’s “Tartuffe” into fast-paced comedy. In its colourful pop outfit, betrayal shines all the brighter and our present times are firmly in their sights. The seemingly pious and virtuous Tartuffe deeply impresses the wealthy Orgon and unsettles his entire family, until he is gradually caught in dishonest intentions. So far the story as told by Molière. In his radical retelling, PeterLicht takes up central motifs of the work, taking aim at our present times in the process. “A outrageous exuberant, thoroughly Pop-trendy Molière-transcription of the Cologne music writer PeterLicht. Completely unhinged and inspired." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung )“This Tartuffe is so super! Pure nonsense. A philosophy parody – surely destined to become a cult work.” (Deutschlandfunk)