The Rape of the Sabine Women

Prof. Martin Gollwitz, headmaster of the local grammar school, has secretly written a play: The Rape of the Sabine Women, a Roman tragedy in verse, the quality of which he himself sometimes doubts. He is all the more surprised when theatre director Emanuel Striese, who is currently touring the small town with his troupe, actually wants to stage the play in just eight days. Isn't that far too short notice? And above all: what will Gollwitz's unsuspecting wife say, not to mention his two daughters? Could the whole thing damage his good reputation? Encouraged by his enthusiastic housekeeper Rosa, who knows his secret, Gollwitz agrees to Striese's plan, but prefers to use a pseudonym as the author. However, this marks the beginning of a series of misunderstandings, mix-ups and other disasters, the dynamics of which soon overwhelm Gollwitz.

In an almost provocative manner, Peter Jordan remains faithful to the motifs of Schönthan's famous original, but transforms the dated farce into an anarchic screwball comedy, complete with a new punchline that turns everything upside down once again. With a high density of gags and a variety of means (wordplay, slapstick, breaking the fourth wall), he employs the mechanisms of comedy at such a breakneck pace that it repeatedly overtakes itself and watches itself at work, which – as theatre within theatre within theatre – only increases the entertainment value.