Marie-Theres Arnbom and Georg Wacks mark the 104th anniversary of the downstairs performance space at Theater an der Wien with a programme that takes audiences down into the depths of the Hölle and presents highlights from twenty years of cabaret in authentic costumes and with magnificent sets.

In the autumn of 1906 Siegmund and Leopold Natzler opened a cabaret company in the cellar of the Theater an der Wien: the Hölle (hell). The aim was to provide intelligent and popular entertainment. Good inhouse writers, a crowd-pulling leading lady and a programme cleverly tailored to the audience’s wishes made the Hölle one of the most durable cabaret theatres to be founded during the pre-war years. The stars of the Hölle were Fritz Grünbaum, Béla lászky and his wife, the acclaimed diseuse Mela Mars, Ralph Benatzky, and Josma Selim. Music was provided by Franz lehár who parodied his own successful works in the Hölle, leo Fall, Edmund Eysler, and a young Robert Stolz. The acts included chansons, ingeniously humorous monologues, solo numbers, sketches, risqué songs, one-act plays, and small-scale operettas. Guest performers and variety numbers made the programme still more varied. A modern restaurant in a Jugendstil ambience took care of the audience’s gastronomic wishes. The greatest names of the Viennese cabaret scene helped make the Hölle a success: Heinrich Eisenbach, Hans Moser, Karl Farkas and Egon Friedell. In the 1920s the popularity of the Hölle reached new heights thanks to Hugo Wiener, Fritz Heller, and Stella Kadmon.

Enjoy this celebration of a true Viennese tradition, at Theater an der Wien.

Director, programme compiler, and conductor: Georg Wacks
With Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz, Elena Schreiber, Stefan Fleischhacker, Martin Thoma, and Georg Wacks

The music is provide by the “Albero Verde” ensemble led by Christina Renghofer.