The more prize-winning a play is crowned, the more thoroughly it falls", Carl Zuckmayer had been predicted when he received the prestigious Kleist Prize for his comedy "Der fröhliche Weinberg". Far from it! The 1925 Berlin premiere was a triumph, and "The Merry Vineyard" became the most frequently performed comedy of the late 1920s. However, it was also followed - Zuckmayer faithfully recorded it - by 63 theatre scandals in the provinces, for what was drunk, argued about, fought over and loved on stage was a little too much for the »healthy bourgeoisie«. Above all, Zuckmayer's Rhenish-Hessian compatriots - especially those from his home town of Nackenheim - resented the fact that they suddenly had to recognise themselves on the theatre stage as highly quirky, if very true-to-life, types. The powerhouse of the resilient play is the aging wine estate owner Gunderloch, who wants to marry off his daughter Klärchen - comedically, of course, to the wrong person, namely the stuck-up corps student Knuzius. But the young Rhine boatman Jochen Most is much prettier .
Source and further information: http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/programm/spielplan/der-froehliche-weinberg-2018-2019/5306/
