Bibikoff

This article deals with the comedy. For the family name see Bibikow .

Data
Title:	Bibikoff
Genus:	comedy
Original language:	German
Author:	Bruno Frank
Premiere:	June 20, 1918
Place of premiere:	German Theater Berlin
Place and time of the action:	Saint Petersburg , before the First World War
people
Bibikoff, Real Councilor of State Glafira, his wife Natascha, her friend The strange lady Her husband The young gentleman Lisenka, maid Yasha, servant A box closer A cloakroom

Bibikoff. Comedy in three acts based on a humoresque Dostoyevsky is a play by Bruno Frank from 1918. The play is based on Dostoyevsky's story " The Stranger Woman and the Man Under the Bed ". The premiere took place on June 20, 1918 in the Deutsches Theater Berlin . The director was Ferdinand Gregori , and the title role was played by Max Pallenberg , "one of the most important character comedians of his time" according to the theater dictionary. The play wasn't a great success.

A member of the official aristocracy is presented as a ridiculous petty bourgeoisie. His delusional jealousy, which eats him up, drives him to grotesque acts while he anxiously tries to preserve the outer facade.

The title character, a morbidly jealous elderly husband, is obsessed with the thought that his devoted young wife is cheating on him. He lies in wait for her in the opera and in his blind madness penetrates the apartment of a strange lady without reaching the (un) desired destination. Finally, he remorsefully returns from his unsuccessful surveillance visits to his wife, who welcomes him lovingly and cares for him.

action

Overview

In the delusional search for his wife, the pathologically jealous Bibikoff meets a young man in the opera who is waiting for his lover. Bibikoff's search remains unsuccessful, but an accidentally found ticket, which he attributes to his wife, leads him to the apartment of a strange lady. There he meets the young gentleman again, the lady's lover. When the master of the house suddenly returns home, the two comrades in fate escape under the marriage bed. The young gentleman escapes unnoticed, Bibikoff is discovered by the husband and can only with difficulty pull his head out of the noose. The young gentleman goes to Glafira and tells her about the adventures of her long overdue husband. Bibikoff returns home and ruefully admits that he suspected his faithful and loving wife completely wrongly.

first act

In a corridor of the opera. - In a prelude, box closers and cloakroom attendants talk about the current opera: “ Othello ” by Giuseppe Verdi - a first reference to the jealousy that plays a dominant role in Bruno Frank's play. Glafira, the wife of the jealous Bibikoff, bursts in in the middle of the performance, together with her friend Natascha, and goes to her box.

An equally belated young gentleman, who is waiting for his lover, meets Bibikoff, who suspects his wife to be in a precarious company in one of the boxes. He speaks to the young gentleman suddenly in extreme excitement, but is ashamed of his request, stutters around, runs away, comes back unexpectedly, and so on. Finally, he gives himself a jerk and asks the young gentleman shamefully whether he has seen a lady, his friend's wife, he is a bachelor, and the “strange woman”, he says, very confused, is “a very lady , very decent way of life, only slightly light content “, as if he were talking about literature and he wanted to convict the woman on behalf of his friend. He gossips and reveals the first name of the "strange lady": her name is Glafira. At first he thinks the young man is her lover, but likes to be convinced that he is wrong. The young gentleman advises him to go to the stalls and, if the light goes on during the break, watch the boxes from there.

While the husband is lurking in the stalls, the two women come out of their box early and meet the young man. When Natascha calls her by her first name Glafira, he lets her know that her husband is looking for her, but the annoyed Glafira leaves the opera without waiting for her husband. Bibikoff has caught a ticket on the floor which, against all common sense, he considers a compromising letter from his wife. He shows the young man the ticket, who realizes that it is meant for him and invites him to a rendezvous with his lover.

Second act

Strange lady's apartment. - In a prelude, the strange lady chats with her maid about her lover, who snows in shortly afterwards. The lady does not want to cheat on her husband (“I am a respectable woman”), she explains to him, she wants to demand a divorce from him and marry the young man with all due respect. Bibikoff storms into the apartment and breaks into the bedroom of the strange lady, because according to the ticket he suspects his wife to be here - when suddenly a stormy doorbell announces the homecoming of the host. In their distress, Bibikoff and the lover save themselves under the marriage bed, where a silent struggle for space and a grotesque dialogue between the two ensues. Meanwhile, the strange lady distracts her ailing spouse from what is happening under the bed and patters him in a friendly way. Finally the young man manages to escape unnoticed, but Bibikoff is discovered by the host. His trembling fear incites Bibikoff to make the most ridiculous excuses, the couple burst into Homeric laughter , Bibikoff says, without being asked, “that my wife is innocent, completely innocent”, and the compassionate landlord lets Bibikoff go in peace.

Third act

Living room in the Bibikoff house. - In his story, Dostoevsky deals with Bibikoff's return to the marital apartment on only two pages; Bruno Frank dedicates the entire third act to her. Faithful Glafira is anxiously waiting for her husband, she loves him, even if he constantly plagues her with his jealousy . She rejects Natasha's pointed remarks and her frivolous suggestions (“Glafira, you are losing your youth”). The young gentleman can be reported. He openly tells Glafira about his adventure with Bibikoff under the strange woman's bed. Finally Bibikoff shows up. He confuses his wife, who already knows everything, with lengthy explanations about his adventure. Bibikoff at last solemnly renounces his jealousy, and the game comes to a conciliatory end.

people

Leading roles

Max Pallenberg, 1909.

• Ivan Alexandrejewitsch Bibikoff, Real Councilor of State, around 55 years old, Glafira's jealous husband, starring in the premiere: Max Pallenberg .
• Glafira, Bibikoff's loyal young wife, who suffers from the delusional jealousy of her husband, pityingly called "Desdemona" by Natascha.
• Natascha, Glafira's girlfriend, around 45 years old.
• Agrafena Romanovna, "the strange lady", young woman, wife of Stepan Ilitsch.
• Stepan Ilitsch, older gentleman, around 65 years old.
• Tworogin, "the young gentleman".

Supporting roles

• Lisenka, Glafira's maid.
• Jascha, servant at Bibikoffs.
• Porphyri Nikitsch, a box closer in the opera.
• Pulcheria Alexandrown, a cloakroom attendant at the opera.

Emergence

In 1929 Bruno Frank commented on his theater productions:

“In order to achieve the greatest peace and comfort for writing my novels, I will continue to write a stage play every year as a source of income , i. H. a stage pull, only from a commercial point of view . I don't see it as a poetic achievement, I just see it as an interesting experiment. "

This is not to be taken literally, because his pieces, including his comedies, are not a clumsy series of scenes that attract audiences, but are often serious and subtle. Before the publication of “Bibikoff”, Bruno Frank had already earned his first spurs as a playwright with two other plays: in 1916 with the comedy “ Die Treue Magd ” and shortly before “Bibikoff”, also in 1918, with the play “ Die Schwestern und der Fremde” ".

Bruno Frank Dostoyevsky's story “ The Strange Woman and the Man Under the Bed ” served as a template for his comedy “Bibikoff ”. In the title of his piece, Bruno Frank states that it is a "free" arrangement "based on a humoresque " Dostoevsky. It is not known which edition Bruno Frank used as a model. The first German edition of Dostoyevsky's story did not appear until 1920, two years after the publication of Bruno Frank's play.

Dostoyevsky's Humoresque consists of two chapters, formerly independent individual narratives, which he merged into a story that could also be read independently of one another. The connection between the two is only loosely established through the person of the title hero. Bruno Frank created a plot from one piece in which the original dichotomy is no longer recognizable. For the theater routine Bruno Frank, the dramatic structure and dialogue-heavy narrative was obvious when reading the original; it literally “screamed” for a dramatization. The small number of locations also spoke for the easy realization on the stage.

While Bruno Frank closely followed the dialogue between the two male heroes, he partially rearranged the sequence of scenes. He left out a scene from the first chapter entirely, added funny preludes to the first two acts, and added a third act he had invented. In terms of content, Bruno Frank's comedy differs essentially in that the young woman is unwaveringly faithful to her husband, while in Dostoevsky she serves three masters, her husband and two lovers.

The table shows the differences between the two plants. - Printed editions used: #Bruno Frank # Frank 1918.1 , #Dostojewski 1921 .

action	Bibikoff		The strange woman and the man under the bed
	Act, scene	place	Chapters, pages	place
Prelude: box closers and cloakroom attendants	1, 1	Opera house
Glafira goes to her box	1, 2	Opera house
Bibikoff is looking for his wife A young man is waiting for his lover	1, 3-5	Opera house	I, 249-263	In front of the apartment building
Young gentleman meets Glafira when she leaves her box	1, 6	Opera house
Bibikoff and the young gentleman meet Glafira with Bobynizin			I, 263-271	In front of Bobynizin's apartment
Glafira appeases her husband and her lovers			I, 271-274	In front of the apartment building
Find a love letter	1, 7	Opera house	II, 274-282	Opera house
Prelude: strange lady and maid	2, 1	Strange Lady's Boudoir
Bibikoff and young gentleman under the bed	2, 2-4	Strange lady's bedroom	II, 282-305	Strange lady's bedroom
Bibikoff is exposed	2, 5	Strange lady's bedroom	II, 305-314	Strange lady's bedroom
Glafira is waiting for Bibikoff	3, 1	Bibikoff's living room
Young man comes Glafira is waiting for Bibikoff	3, 2-3	Bibikoff's living room	II, 314-315	Bibikoff's living room
Bibikoff's return	3, 4-8	Bibikoff's living room	II, 314-315	Bibikoff's living room

Performances

The world premiere took place on June 20, 1918 in the Deutsches Theater Berlin as part of Maximilian Sladek's summer directorate. The director was Ferdinand Gregori , the title role was played by Max Pallenberg . The play was performed 14 times at the Deutsches Theater between June 20 and July 21, 1918. Nothing is known about further performances, including at other German-speaking theaters. It cannot be ruled out that the piece will be well received by the audience despite the criticism.

reception

After the premiere Poison und Galle in his magazine “ Die Weltbühne ”, the critic Siegfried Jacobsohn spat about the supposedly low intellectual level of the play. However, he wisely avoided attacking the Dostoevsky monument, which provided the template, since criticism of the poet prince could all too easily have fallen back on himself. Jacobsohn may have fallen victim to "typical German seriousness" because he did not strain his laughing muscles during the premiere:

“This is one of those pieces in which one always observes with stiff seriousness for oneself that the author evidently had a lot of fun writing it. It lasts seventy-five minutes, and its brevity is unfortunately not a joke's soul, but a lack of humor. "

"... so he invented the third act himself, and God be before him."

At the end, "none of the punchlines that would have suited it, not a single one, but the curtain sinks resignedly, and the audience feels justified in leaving so disappointed that even the claque doesn't dare kick the gun."

The journalist and translator Max Meyerfeld judged Bruno Frank's comedy after its premiere in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung :

“Safe. It has a bitter aftertaste when you see how Bruno Frank, who we had recently encountered as a fine chamber musician with a small, pure tone in his play The Sisters and the Stranger , now takes on a role for Pallenberg , who can hardly be tamed the body writes. ... In detail, it will be difficult to determine how Frank made the role of Pallenberg or Pallenberg the role of frank himself bite-sized. "

Print output

• Bruno Frank : Bibikoff. Comedy in three acts based on a humoresque Dostoyevsky. Berlin / Munich: Drei Masken Verlag, 1918.

literature

• Pallenberg, Max. In: Manfred Brauneck (editor); Wolfgang Beck (Ed.): Theater Lexikon 2. Actors and directors, stage managers, dramaturges and stage designers . Reinbek 2007, pages 544-545.
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky : The strange woman and the man under the bed. German by Frida Ichak . With a lithographed drawing on the lid, 16 text vignettes and twelve full-page stone drawings by Anny Bernstein. Musarion, Munich 1920.
• Fyodor Dostojewski : Complete novels and short stories, Volume 17. The lifelong husband. The strange woman and the man under the bed. Two stories. Transferred from H. Röhl. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1921, online (edition of 1922) .
• Heinrich Huesmann: Reinhardt World Theater. Buildings, venues, productions. Munich 1983, number 1019.
• Siegfried Jacobsohn : Theatergoers. In: Die Weltbühne , Volume 14, June 27, 1918, Number 26, Pages 599–600.
• Sascha Kirchner: The citizen as an artist. Bruno Frank (1887–1945) - life and work. Düsseldorf 2009.
• Max Meyerfeld : Berlin Theater. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 27, 1918 Second Abendblatt, number 846, online: .

Web links

• Bruno Frank, Digital Works, Acting .

Footnotes

1. ↑ #Dostoevsky 1921 .
2. ↑ #Brauneck 2007 .
3. ↑ #Kirchner 2009 , page 91.
4. ↑ #Kirchner 2009 , page 188.
5. ↑ #Dostoevsky 1921 .
6. ↑ #Dostoevsky 1920 .
7. ↑ # Huesmann 1983 .
8. ↑ #Jacobsohn 1918 , #Meyerfeld 1918 .
9. ↑ #Jacobsohn 1918 .
10. ↑ #Meyerfeld 1918 .