In twenty essays, prefaced by a historical introduction, this volume surveys key features of the last two hundred years of theatre in what was the principal theatrical centre of central Europe until the First World War, relating key playwrights, plays, and institutional developments to the political and intellectual context that has helped shape them. The studies combine to give a picture of conservative and progressive movements in Viennese theatre from the aesthetic and political conservatism of the early nineteenth century to the innovations of the great period of Viennese modernism at the turn of the century, renewed conservatism in the inter-war years and the resurgence in the last two decades of the twentieth century of an outspokenly critical treatment of right-wing politics. Contents: Peter Branscombe: The Beginnings of Parody in Viennese Popular Theatre–Ian F. Roe: The Reception of Raimund’s Moisasurs Zauberfluch–Hans Holler: Zur Rhetorik des Sensualismus in Grillparzers Dramen–Birgit Pargner: Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer und das kommerzielle Theater im Wien des 19. Jahrhunderts–F. J. Lamport: History, Myth and Psychology in Libussa and Die Nibelungen–Michael Patterson: The Fire in the Ringtheater on 8 December 1881–Robert Vilain: The Sublime and the Ridiculous: Dramatic Wagner Parodies in Vienna–W. E. Yates: The Rise and Fall of the One-Act-Play–Gilbert Carr: Corridors of Power and Whispered Plots: The Banning of Otto Stoessl’s and Robert Scheu’s Waare in 1897/1898–Andrew W. Barker: Interior Monologue, Monodrama and the Palais Stoclet: Marie Pappenheim’s Libretto for Schoenberg’s Erwartung–Janet Stewart: Egon Friedell and Alfred Polgar: Cabaret in Vienna at the Turn ofthe Last Century–Emma E. Smith: ‘Aber ich hab sie nit kennt, die Weiber’: Female Anarchy Unleashed in Karl Schonherr’s Der Weibsteufel–Judith Beniston: Max Mell in the First Republic: The Acceptable Face of Catholic Drama?–John Warren: Viennese Theatre Criticism between the Wars–Louise Adey Huish: ‘Eine typisch altosterreichisch-ungarische Mischung’: The Reception of Horvath’s Plays in Vienna, 1931-37–Stefan Aichhorn: Vineta von Jura Soyfer oder Die Avantgarde auf der Kellerbuhne–Ulrike Tanzer: Das Spiel von Geld und Moral. Hugo von Hofmannsthals und Felix Mitterers Jedermann-Bearbeitungen–Osman Durrani: Helmut Qualtinger: The Mouth behind the Fig Leaf–Stefan Krammer: Kein Platz fur Helden–Schweigen in Text und Kontext von Thomas Bernhards Heldenplatz–Allyson Fiddler: Theorizing and ‘Playing’ Sport in Elfriede Jelinek: Some Notes on Ein Sportstuck.
