Be careful, drinking water!
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| Title: | Be careful, drinking water! |
| Original title: | Don't drink the water |
| Genus: | comedy |
| Original language: | English |
| Author: | Woody Allen |
| Publishing year: | 1966 |
| Premiere: | 17th November 1966 |
| Place of premiere: | Morosco Theater in New York |
| Place and time of the action: | An American embassy somewhere behind the iron curtain |
| people | |
u. a. |
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Be careful, drinking water! (in the English original: Don't Drink the Water ) is the German title of a farce from 1966. The work is the first stage play by the American comedian Woody Allen . The comedy premiered on November 17, 1966 at the Morosco Theater in New York City . The German-language premiere took place on January 9, 1982 on the stages of the state capital Kiel .
action
The action takes place in the US embassy of a fictional country behind the Iron Curtain . The ambassador, James F. Magee, has to go on an urgent trip and during his absence he has to entrust his clumsy son Axel with the management of diplomatic affairs.
As soon as the father has left, Walter Hollander, his wife Marion and their adorable daughter Susan crash into the embassy and confront Axel with an explosive task: Hollander, a patriotic American and owner of a party service, is on a vacation trip with his family Europe and indulges in his new hobby, photography . Inadvertently he took some “harmless” recordings in a restricted area and is therefore now suspected of espionage and pursued by Krojack, the chief of the secret police .
Krojack demands extradition, but Axel sees his hour has come and grants the family asylum - after all, they have experience with such incidents. Father Drobney, for example, testifies to this, a clergyman who escaped persecution six years ago by fleeing to the embassy and is now spending the time studying and performing various magic tricks .
While the personified catastrophe called Axel falls in love with the lovely Susan and steps from one faux pas to the next, Walter's quick-tempered manner also brings unrest to the message and at the same time does not leave Axel good. He pulls out all the stops to free the Hollanders from their predicament and even organizes an exchange with a captured agent from the other side. In the excitement, however, he completely forgets that the Sultan of Bashir is in attendance, and that an important oil business depends on his satisfaction. Of course, everything goes wrong: The prisoner exchange bursts because the agent shortly before its reintroduction suicide commits while the Sultan of Bashir is grossly offended on his arrival by Walter. Meanwhile, the embassy is besieged by demonstrators who, incited by Krojack's agitation, demand the extradition of the Americans and even throw bombs into the embassy building.
In the end, in all the chaos, Axel had the brilliant idea: after the Sultan of Bashir had given overabundant alcohol during the ceremony arranged in his honor, he quickly put Walter and Marion Hollander in his clothes. So both - disguised as the sultan and his main wife - can leave the embassy undetected. The daughter, who feels strongly drawn to Axel, agrees to become his wife and at the same time gains diplomatic immunity . The Hollanders are thus released from their situation in the end and Axel also benefits from the mess by winning the pretty Susan.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Information on the piece from Fischer-Verlag , accessed on May 20, 2009