Performed in the run-up to steirischer herbst ’21 at the Hoftheater Hainersdorf, a former farm, the new play by women-only theater collective Die Rabtaldirndln addresses the urgent topic of land grabs and development in rural Styria from a satirically exaggerated female perspective. 

Performing a double-edged provincial naivete in dialect, Die Rabtaldirndln use the anachronistic popular form and its fictions to talk about the reality of real-estate speculation and its environmental impact upon the soil itself. These are urgent topics in seemingly placid rural Styria, which the theater collective addresses in the form of a Schwank—a simple, short, humorous play anchored in the rural folk theater tradition, now given an eye-winking update under the direction of Ed. Hauswirth. Four women—pillars of village life—track down the corrupt machinations of their men, as the mayor is selling out land in parcels to corrupt investors from the city. The women set a trap for them and prevent them divvying up of the countryside, thus saving the ground from being sealed up and over with concrete.

The short film Betonfieber by Die Rabtaldirndln and HENX Filmproduktion (dir. Ed. Hauswirth) represents the production online over the festival period.

Concept and production: Die Rabtaldirndln and Ed. Hauswirth
Director: Ed. Hauswirth
Actresses: Barbara Carli, Rosa Degen-Faschinger, Bea Dermond, and Gudrun Maier
Tech: Christina Bergner
Set and costume design: Georg Klüver-Pfandtner
Dramaturgy: Dominik Müller
Outside eye: Gerda Saiko

Short film Betonfieber
Direction: Ed. Hauswirth
Actresses: Barbara Carli, Rosa Degen-Faschinger, Bea Dermond, and Gudrun Maier
Costumes and props: Georg Klüver-Pfandtner
Film production: HENX Filmproduktion

Mediathek

Link

https://2021.steirischerherbst.at/en/program/artists/1927/die-rabtaldirndln