When shopowner Herr Zangler goes off to Vienna to see his fiancée, his two assistants, Weinberl and Christopher, take the opportunity to abandon the rollmops and pigs’ trotters for an adventure in the city. Throw into the mix Zangler’s infatuated niece Marie, her penniless lover Sonders, a libidinous coachman, a man-hungry widow, a duplicitous manservant, a lovelorn spinster and her equally lovelorn maid and the stage is set for a frenetic two hours of Stoppard’s trademark verbal gymnastics in a plot of dazzling complexity. With no pun left unturned, no identity unmistaken, and every entendre doubled, this is the playwright at his most playful and hilarious.
‘Oh my! I feel like a real rapscallion. We’re on the razzle at last!’
