Beatrice and Juana

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Beatrice and Juana is a radio play by Günter Eich that was broadcast on May 4, 1954 by SWF , BR and RB under the direction of Gert Westphal .

Frame narration

Friedrichslust Castle in 1950: The young chemist Carlo plays tennis with his fiancée Beatrice in the castle garden. When the engagement ring presses him, he puts it on a sandstone statue's finger. When Carlo wants his ring back after the game, the stone rococo lady doesn't give it up. Violence doesn't help. The statue now holds her hand closed. Later at the table, Carlo registers that the stone is sitting in the group and is wearing his ring.

During the drive into town, Beatrice explains to the fiancé - when asked. The lady - Juana by name - was the lover of Prince Ferdinand, who was then reigning in Friedrichslust, around 1750. Juana is sitting in the car. Carlo sees them in the rearview mirror. The attending general practitioner wants to refer the patient Carlo to a psychiatrist when he points to an empty chair in the consulting room and claims that Juana is sitting on it. Beatrice calls the castle. All that remains of the statue is the base. The fiancées don't go to the neurologist, but go to a bar in town. In it they get to know the sausage manufacturer Schmitz (in the cheerful play Prince Ferdinand and the sausage manufacturer are spoken by an actor) and the dark, smiling girl in his company. Beatrice is asked to dance by Schmitz and reluctantly follows. Carlo does the same as the manufacturer. The young chemist holds Juana in his arms. She wears his ring, recapitulates the events outlined above and threatens that he would only get his ring back after he had fulfilled the condition from then. Otherwise he would get Juana as a stone woman. At that time it is 1750. Carlo wants to make up for his omission.

The internal narrative (see below) begins and leads back to the middle of the 18th century. There Carlo falls in love with Juana and ultimately disdains Beatrice.

On the way home from the city to Friedrichslust, Beatrice confesses to the bewildered fiancé that the sausage manufacturer Schmitz was her father in 1750. Everything will be fine. The fiancée proves to her bridegroom that he did not spurn her at the time - precisely because of his negligence. In the end he turned to her, Beatrice, and not to Juana. Of course, Carlo agrees, relieved, that he dreamed of the small states from 1750. At home in the palace garden, Carlo can easily pull the engagement ring off the finger of the statue that is present again. The happy ending follows. The couple Carlo / Beatrice confess their love.

Internal narration

Friday, May 13th 1750: The charlatan Carlo poses as an alchemist for Prince Ferdinand and approaches Beatrice, the daughter of the ruler. The young girl is destined for a good match by her burned-down father. That marriage project turns out to be almost as difficult as making gold. Beatrice is not willing to marry anyway. She wants to flee with her lover Carlo. Juana, the prince's Spanish mistress , intrigues against Carlo. The prince stops his court alchemist. Carlo goes to prison, but at the instigation of his Beatrice is released and deported. Despite the prohibition, Carlo once again went to Beatrice on foot. On the run from the captors, he caught the door of his intimate enemy Juana, of all things, in the princely Friedrichslust Palace. She hides the refugee, falls in love with the young man and doesn't want anything more to do with the elderly Prince Ferdinand. Carlo wants to flee with Beatrice. Juana prepares to escape. When the time comes, Carlo and Juana run away.

Productions

Adaptations

reception

  • "For the first time, Günter Eich is presenting a comedy."
  • Wagner gives three reviews from May 1954 in the daily press.

Recent comments

  • Oppermann finds the “romantic game of confusion” “quite appealing”, but notes little intellectual depth when he speaks of “mere entertainment”. Oppermann looks at the Beatrice-Carlo-Juana triangle. The trigger for the conflict is "the jealousy of a stone figure".
  • The little story at the beginning of the radio play (the stone statue does not give the ring ) was taken from Günter Eich from MériméesThe Venus of Ille ” (1837). The rest - from the point in time when Carlos takes note of the return condition for his ring from Juana's mouth - is Günter Eich's invention. Alber also goes into the search for the philosopher's stone .

literature

Used edition

  • Günter Eich: Beatrice and Juana (1954) . P. 81–123 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays 2. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume III . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN

Audio book

  • Commemorative trilogy Günter Eich: Beatrice and Juana . Radio play BR anno 1954 based on Gert Westphal's production mentioned above. 1 audio CD, running time 61 min. NOANOA audio book edition and theater publisher anno 2002, ISBN 978-3-932929-33-5

Secondary literature

  • Michael Oppermann: Inner and outer reality in Günter Eich's radio play. Diss. University of Hamburg 1989, Reinhard Fischer publishing house, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88927-070-0
  • Sabine Alber: The place in free fall. Günter Eich's moles in the context of the entire work. Dissertation. Technische Universität Berlin 1992. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992 (European university publications. Series I, German language and literature, vol. 1329), ISBN 3-631-45070-2
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1999, ISBN 3-932981-46-4 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive ; Vol. 27)

Web links

Poetic liberties

  1. Beatrice tells about Juana. Carlo wonders: How does Beatrice know the name of the Spaniard (edition used, p. 120, 15. Zvo)? Possible answers: Either Carlo has an interruption at that moment (supposedly he has to find his way around after his dream in 1950) or Günter Eich does not overlook his piece. At the beginning of the play (edition used, p. 87, 14. Zvo) it was Beatrice who had given the bridegroom the name Juana.
  2. May 13, 1750 was a Wednesday ( Zeller's congruence ).

Individual evidence

  1. Karst, p. 759, 2nd entry above
  2. Edition used, p. 82
  3. Edition used, p. 98, 9. Zvo
  4. Karst, p. 759, 14th Zvu
  5. Karst, p. 759 Mitte and Wagner, p. 268, left column, 14. Zvu
  6. from the SWF press service (first week of May 1954), quoted in Wagner, p. 266, right column, center
  7. ^ Wagner, p. 268, bottom left column
  8. Oppermann, p. 104, 3. Zvo
  9. Oppermann, p. 105, 5th Zvu
  10. Oppermann, p. 105, 5. Zvo
  11. Alber, p. 114, 3rd Zvo to p. 115, 9th Zvu
  12. Alber, p. 116, 4th Zvu