Johann Nestroy
Das Verlobungsfest im Feenreiche

Nestroy set his early play in a magical environment. Transformations and fiuid transitions between different worlds lend an additional level to this play. From the fairy-tale world we look upon the Earth and accompany the divine Regina and the crafty genius Schladriwuxerl on their turbulent quest for ideal spouses.
Such transformations and switching between different worlds, for instance between the realm of the dead and the living, are a matter of course in Japanese Nô theatre, too. We compare and discover differences and astonishing similarities.
My leitmotif is an interplay of viewpoints. It allows diversified comparisons and dialogues in the medium itself: Japanese and Austrian theatre, languages and speech, music and varieties of instruments such as the Koto, Zither, Shamisen, Japanese head voices Styrian yodelling, dramatisations of colour and stylisations of traditional Styrian costumes and Kabuki costumes. This also includes the interplay of Japanese Kagura masks and Austrian carnival and devil masks. The magical change of views refer to the religious-ritual beginnings of theatre.
—Ulrike Ottinger

Text: Johann Nestroy
Director: Ulrike Ottinger
Set design: Ulrike Ottinger
Costumes: Gisela Storch
Actors: Libgart Schwarz, Yukiko Goto, Masakatsu Hanayagi, Tsutomu Izawa, Takeshi Miyajima, Tetsuro Nonami, Yoshie Sakamoto, Takanojo Senda, Emiko Yoshimura
Music: Etsuko Takezawa, Yumiko Tanaka, Konrad Krammer, Anton Lazarus, Wolfgang Pichler, Siegmund Schmolli