Werner Schwab

Die Präsidentinnen
3 Szenen
3 D, 1 Dek
UA: 13.02.1990 · Theater im Künstlerhaus, Wien · Directed by: G. Panak
Erna’s open-plan kitchen. The present. After Erna, Grete and Mariedl watch the broadcast of a papal mass on TV, they talk about God and the world. The bigoted and stingy Erna is worried about her son Hermann, who would rather drink than give her a grandchild. The always salacious Grete tells of her mentally unhinged daughter, Hannelore, who lives in Australia, and raves about her dachshund, Lydi. Mariedl’s great passion is emptying blocked toilets with her bare hands, which she has turned into a real art. Erna and Grete get into an argument over Wottila’s meat that degenerates into a real fight. In the end, Mariedl manages to reconcile the two. The three women dream of a party at which Grete turns the head of a musician and Wottila takes Erna by the hand, while Mariedl cleans out blocked toilets to the crowd’s applause. Mariedl lets Hermann come to the party, too. He beats Erna’s and Wottila’s heads together for so long that “their souls emigrate”. Erna and Grete take revenge for this fantasy by taking a kitchen knife to Mariedl and “carefully cutting right through her neck”. Afterwards, three beautiful women perform the play Die Prädisentinnen – they are “malicious, over the top and shrill” – while Erna, Grete and Mariedl make off into the distance in horror.
Die Präsidentinnen is the first of Schwab’s ‘faecal’ dramas. On its title, the author has remarked “These are people who think they know everything, and want to dominate everything. It is a form of megalomania. I come from a family of presidents.” (Harenberg Schauspielführer)
Translated into: Albanian, Czech, Danish, English, Faeroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish

Hörspiele

Werner Schwab
Die Präsidentinnen
Ernas Wohnküche. Gegenwart. Nachdem sich Erna, Grete und Mariedl im Fernsehen ... mehr
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