Theater in Kicklingen inspires with “The holiday souvenir”

Old, but at least as good: The current play at the Kicklingen theater has been on the program before, but that was ten years ago. It is about two middle-aged Swabian gentlemen who are suddenly visited by a young Italian woman who wants to find her father in the deepest province. Looking back on their trip to Italy about 20 years ago, they remember having an affair with a local. After a quick calculation and a geographical classification, they realize that they both come into question as the person they are looking for. This creates a grandiose confusion.

Theaterbühne Kicklingen performs “The Holiday Souvenir”.

The two main characters New Year’s Eve Schlitz and Emil Obrmeier are wonderfully embodied by the actors Wolfgang Lachenmayr and Herbert Gallenmiller. Two seasoned Swabians sit opposite each other on the stage. They enjoy drinking and partying and are both under the thumb of a female dominant figure. In the case of Obermeier or Gallenmiller, this is the sister who also runs the inn, the setting of the play. It’s a classic sibling relationship and Alexandra Schmid plays the bitchy relative brilliantly.

However, Lachenmayr was even worse off in the role of the baker Schlitz: his wife, played by Petra Grundgeier, appears energetically. She chases her husband through the scene with a rolling pin. She empties the beer in one gulp. The civil servant Otto Steinbeißer, played by the chairman of the theater association, Konrad Lachenmayr, is stormy in love. This spontaneously replaced another actor who had to pause for this season due to illness.

Laughter and jeers in the audience at the Kicklingen theater stage

Playing with the spoken word was also interesting. Of course, the main characters speak the broadest Kicklinger Swabian. It gets really funny when it collides with the perfect Saxon language of the bakery salesman Robert Kummer, played by Wolfgang Jall. The actor brings a masterpiece to the stage. In keeping with his role, he throws packets of baking powder, pudding and the like into the audience. The laughs are on his side.

The climax that got the audience hooting was when the two main characters were forced to disguise themselves as women to avoid being recognized. If you don’t want to miss out on this fun, you can still secure tickets for the last three performances. These will take place on April 23rd, 28th and 29th.