The in vitro fertilisation failed, the marriage is going so-so; also there is the hot new prosciutto machine, the facelift, the rising prices for Botox, the unfaithful BFF, the drinking problem – Housewives say, reveal, confess EVERYTHING, they lay out their entire private lives on camera. And we, millions of viewers, watch them do it. Two collectives meet for The Unreal Housewives of Vienna vs. The Unreal Housewives of Graz: Vienna’s toxic dreams and Graz’s Die Rabtaldirndln.
The Unreal Housewives of Vienna vs. The Unreal Housewives of Graz is inspired by the U.S. reality TV show The Real Housewives of […], successful since 2006 in the States and across continents. Each series presents a group of friends, all upper-middle-class women, who expose their private lives on camera. For The Unreal Housewives, director Yosi Wanunu has taken random passages or individual sentences uttered by women from two of the series and montaged them to create a new, fictional script. In a formal experiment combining docusoap, TV soap and soap musical, the performers of toxic dreams and Die Rabtaldirndln compete against each other in a humorously inscrutable contest of beauty and infamy. Will there be a showdown? You bet there will be.
toxic dreams is a group founded in 1997 by producer Kornelia Kilga and writer/director Yosi Wanunu and has since realised more than 80 original productions. In work cycles spanning several years, toxic dreams devise aesthetically and formally diverse formats in collaborative processes. The current cycle, Real Fiction, deals with the meaning of narration and narrative between the poles of truth and fiction. toxic dreams feature in brut’s programme on a regular basis.
Die Rabtaldirndln are a theatre and performance collective from Graz that has devised performances and theatre productions dealing with the discrepancies between city and country life for 15 years. Their work often deals with realities of life under inhospitable conditions; issues include rural flight, dying villages, idyll clichés, or ideological differences between city and countryside. Die Rabtaldirndln’s productions are urban and highly sensitive, they often contain elements of popular culture, and they aim at hitting a nerve in both rural and urban environments. Die Rabtaldirndln feature in brut’s programme on a regular basis.
‘Pleasurably, the piece mashes up different universes (from Strindberg to trash), thus proving reality TV to be performance material. And very much so.’
Salzburger Nachrichten
‘The creations of Yosi Wanunu, whatever shape they assume, are carried by great irony and lightness.’
Falter
The Unreal Housewives of Graz Die Rabtaldirndln – Barbara Carli, Rosa Degen-Faschinger, Bea Dermond, Gudrun Maier The Unreal Housewives of Vienna toxic dreams – Stephanie Cumming, Susanne Gschwendtner, Isabella Händler, Anat Stainberg Set design Götz Bury, Paul Horn Music Michael Strohmann Dresses Susanne Bisovsky Make-up Eliese Barnard Assistant director Katharina Höltermann Concept and direction Yosi Wanunu Production Kornelia Kilga, Rosa Degen-Faschinger
A collaboration by toxic dreams and Die Rabtaldirndln in co-production with brut Wien. With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport, the Styrian government, and Graz Kultur.
brut nordwest
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
accessible
Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
not accessible
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
Eschenbachgasse 11 / Ecke Getreidemarkt, 1010 Vienna
U-Bahn: U4, U1 (Karlsplatz), Tram: 1, 2, D, 71 (Burgring), Bus: 57A (Getreidemarkt)