Thomas Hürlimann

1798. Distant cannon thunder announces the war. The French are already in Einsiedeln. Meanwhile, the men of Ybrig dig themselves in on the mountain, in a kind of historical reduit located at the front and practise mental resistance. At the same time, the women perform another kind of sacrifice: they want to receive the conquerors dirty and grubby so they turn away in disgust.

But the enemy comes in the person of Foulon, a handsome French painter of battle scenes, who brings the French way of life into the high valley. And thus, the women, who had just now been shabby, unwashed and smelly, discover their lust for life and love, while their husbands wait in the freezing cold for the enemy to pass.

Based on a farce written by a priest from Einsiedeln in 1824, Hürlimann has created a taut comedy full of life, strapping and hefty, crisp and funny, colourful and fiery, ironic and erotic, that in the foreground keeps to the ancient clichés of folk theatre, to village dignitaries, intrigues and war of the sexes, while playing with contemporary and social references.