Ödön von Horváth

Kasimir und Karoline

Harag György Company of Northern Theatre Satu Mare

The Oktoberfest, Munich's beer festival, is a merry-go-round of merriment, ice cream is sweetly cooling, and the performers' podium is a succession of shows. Technological progress knows no boundaries, a balloon flies in the sky, and hopes, desires and dreams fly up there with it. Downstairs, however, the global economic crisis is threatening mass unemployment, and as the afternoon slowly turns to night, more and more beer is consumed.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, and we know only in hindsight: in a few months, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party will be in power, and Horváth will leave Germany for good. But for now, it's time to have fun. Merchant and tradesman, councillor and clerk, minister and worker, president of the court and petty swindler, master and servant: all of Munich is having fun together.

Kasimir and Karoline love each other, they are engaged, but in the cavalcade of October fun they fall apart. Karoline wants to have a good time, but Kasimir has lost his job as a chauffeur the day before, and with it the car he was entrusted with. They separate in the thickening carnival crowd, and both join new companions. With them they travel on in this ever more frantic merry-go-round, climbing the social ladder from heaven to hell, from hell to heaven, each one finally finding his heaven in hell or hell in heaven.