On stage two gentlemen, not too young and not too skinny. Their attempt to present the audience with gags originally performed by young, trained comedians is hindered by their age and physique and also their lack of technical skills in slapstick comedy. The conflict between the physical existence of the two players and the task at hand is the real centre of the performance.
As the play progresses, the gags become bigger, more technically demanding, and more ambitious in terms of stage apparatus. Inevitably, this must lead to colossal failure in the execution of the gags. What takes place on stage is the Sisyphean work of the two actors desperately trying to make the audience laugh.
The gags get bigger and more dangerous and the likelihood of failure all the more possible. The gags performed are classics of the comedy routine as well as some outstanding gags from the history of silent film and early Hollywood sound films. But the players soon abandon the narrative structure of the originals and enter a situation that is almost oppressive in its repetition and silence. Their focus shifts from the joke to work, sweat and toil, and to the inherent dangerousness of the repetitiveness of a gag.
With: Yosi Wanunu, Roland Rauschmeier, Markus Zett
Live Piano: Vojtech Prochazca
Stage Manager: Michael Strohmann
Set: Roland Rauschmeier
Text: Yosi Wanunu
Assistance: Amelie Finan
Production: Kornelia Kilga
Co – Production: TOXIC DREAMS & WTKB
Supperted by: Austrian Federal Chancellery and the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs