Zastrozzi

[ingrid_vienna]

It's an odd little play - about the pursuit of revenge and how this can fill your whole life. But as soon as you've reached your goal your life has to end. and if you don't want to die you have to start your pursuit all over again.

Which is what Zastrozzi, the master criminal, does in the end. he first confines himself to inhabit a vacated prison to contemplate life, then starts his quest for revenge again - by letting his finally cornered arch enemy, the (lunatic) man who killed Zastrozzi's mother, go.
It's the fight between good and evil all through the play - the good servant is pitted against the criminal one, the pure maiden against the "fallen woman" and yet noone can win this fight.

The play has been described as a hybrid of melodrama and operatic tragedy, but I think it's its increasingly surrealistic tone that does it for me. Its strange rhythm sucks the audience in - and the brilliant actors certainly help things along nicely. Rick Roberts is an enigmatic Zastrozzi whose German is very cute (yes, forgive me, I'm from Austria, I liked the way he does it...); Andrew Shaver a very Jim Carrey-like lunatic murderer with religious fantasies.

It's definitely a different experience after all that Shakespeare of course but it's also most definitely worth a visit!