On The Razzle
The May play will be a farce by Tom Stoppard.
This farce promises an evening of slapstick, shenanigans, mistaken identities, misdirected orders, malapropisms, double entendres, and romantic complications. Herr Zangler, the twisted-tongued proprietor of an upscale grocery store in a small Austrian village, plans to marry Mme. Knorr, the proprietor of a women’s clothing shop in Vienna. In preparation for new life in the big city, he orders a new wardrobe and hires the fast-talking Melchior as a personal assistant. He arranges to send his niece Marie to his sister-in-law in Vienna, Miss Blumenblatt, to protect her from the penniless Sonders who is courting her. As he departs for Vienna, Zangler entrusts the operation of his business to his garrulous head clerk, Weinberl, and his naive apprentice, Christopher, who decide, when they think Zangler is safely out of the way, to go themselves “on the razzle” to Vienna as well. Many adventures follow and as Zangler comments as he takes to the road, “One false move and we’ll have a farce on our hands”.
