Höllenangst

Recording from the Burgtheater, 2006

Wendelin, the unemployed cobbler’s son, ekes out a bleak existence marked by financial hardship and persecution. But it’s not just the worldly rulers who seem to have conspired against him; even divine providence cannot be trusted. So why not try making an alliance with the devil for once? Especially when—no sooner has the thought been uttered—the Devil himself stands right there, complete with a down payment on the poor cobbler’s son’s soul. From now on, Wendelin fears every positive turn of fortune, because it seems to him to be part of his pact with the devil. Wendelin has no idea that the nocturnal visitor is by no means the devil, but rather a young judge who has fled over the roof in a matter of love. In the course of the ensuing intrigue surrounding the judge’s secret wedding to a young woman—whom her greedy uncle wants to lock away in a convent to seize her property—Wendelin, who believes himself firmly in the clutches of evil, finds himself on the right side for the first time in his life. Nestroy’s farce *Höllenangst* (*Fear of Hell*), which premiered a year after the failed revolution of 1848, reflects the depressing futility of the uprising: Not only do those in power cling to the existing order, but the powerless have also internalized it to such an extent that, in their view, any change cannot possibly be legitimate.