Pre-Nazi Vienna Theatre Venture

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 18 (Supplement)

Pre-Nazi Vienna Theatre Venture

ENGLISH PRODUCTIONS § x Vienna's English-speaking theatre, giving performances on Sundays in the same way as that which formerly existed in .Berlin, gave its first performance recently at the Comedy Theatre under the direction of Count Ferdinand Czernin, who is well known abroad through his book "This Salzburg," a satire on the life of Salzburg during the festival months, written for the benefit of the English-speaking seeker after a little knowledge. The first play performed was "There's Always Juliet," by John van Druten. Count Czernin explained that he regarded modern English comedies as among the most entertaining conversation pieces of the present time, but tbey would lose both their atmosphere and their humour through translation, and in any case English "has become a second mother tongue in Austria, so that there should be interest in plays performed in English." As a result of the Nazi coup in Austria, however, it is probable that the activities of the theatre will not be encouraged and that it will close down, as did the English-speaking theatre in Berlin.