Abstract
Far away from us, on a lonely island in Oceania. Jim McLaren, naturalist, has come to the South Pacific to research the customs of the last cannibals who live there. On the island, Chieftain Abendwind (Evening Wind), head of a matriarchally organised tribe, is expecting her arch-enemy, Chieftain Biberhuhn (Beaver Hen), for a reconciliatory meal. Now something to eat must be rustled up as quickly as possible. There has been no human meat for some time now, and everyone is hungry. The stranger who has unexpectedly turned up on the beach has arrived in the nick of time! Too bad that Atala, Abendwind’s daughter, falls head over heels in love with the young man. But that is not all: after the feast, it would appear that it is Biberhuhn’s eagerly awaited son who has just been eaten…
Our cooperation with the Theater Kanton Zürich was successfully launched with Mozart’s Schauspieldirektor two years ago. Stephan Benson continues the collaboration adapting the wonderfully absurd plot from Jacques Offenbach’s operetta – premièred in Paris in 1857 – in contemporary form. With Rüdiger Burbach as director and Thomas Barthel as conductor, the same team will be in charge as for Der Schauspieldirektor.