Esterhaz (excerpt)

Synopsis:

The year is 1772. Sheltered in the isolated marshlands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is Esterhaz, a palace built to rival the splendour of Versailles, and the summer residence of the Crown Prince Nicholas Esterhazy.

All is brocade and light in this wonderland of rococo artifice, until the court musicians are told that the Prince has decided to stay on at Esterhaz, and that as a result they will not be able to rejoin their families in Eisenstadt in the months ahead. Suddenly the smell of insurrection is in the air.

Into this charged atmosphere stumbles a man calling himself Christoph Sussig – Leopold Mozart in mufti – who has come to learn the secret of Haydn’s success with the aristocracy.

In a stunning combination of music, image, biography and drama, we are drawn into the gilded world of Esterhaz – a world of wealth, power and danger, where the bestowal of a princely snuff-box may mean the difference between fame and oblivion.

Haydn is a pastmaster at the game, Magdalena uses the only weapon at her disposal in an age when women were considered as mere chattels, Paradiso, though blind, sees all and Leopold.. well.. he’s not even in the game.

Character Breakdown:

A cast of five actors playing seven roles:

JOSEPH HAYDN Aged 40

PARADISO  A few years HAYDN’S junior

LUDWIG RAHIER  Slightly HAYDN’S senior / PEASANT – one actor

CHRISTOPH SUSSIG Aged 53

MARIA HAYDN  Aged 43 / MAGDALENA FRIBERTH. Aged 22 – one actor.

Running-time:  100 minutes

Production History:

World Premiere:  Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, Melbourne. 1990

Publication:  Currency Press 1990 (pre-production draft)

Awards:  Nominated AWGIE Best Stage Play 1991

Reviews:

“ This work once and for all establishes Elisha as Australia’s most clever intellectual playwright.”
The Sunday Age