Magistrat der Stadt Eppstein

The Eppstein Castle Festival has been taking place since 1913, making it one of the oldest open-air theater venues in the Rhine-Main region. This year's program includes "Sganarelle oder Der Wunderheiler wider Willen", a comedy based on Molière:

Sganarelle is a downright drunkard and ruffian. When he once again gets into a fight with his wife Martine, she seeks revenge. The servants of the rich noblewoman Madame Géronte are just what she needs. She has sent them off to find a doctor to cure her daughter Lucinde of her sudden muteness. Martine now claims that Sganarelle is a successful miracle doctor who is happy to deny his science. So the servants force Sganarelle into Géronte's house and the doctor against his will has to accept the game for better or worse. What follows is a whole series of absurd attempts to treat Lucinde. Sganarelle, meanwhile, becomes more and more comfortable in his role and winds everyone up with his pompous nature and hollow phrases. Then the young Léandre confesses to Sganarelle that he is in love with Lucinde, but that she has been promised to another rich man. Lucinde's speechlessness is not an illness, but her attempt to resist her mother's plans. Sganarelle then devises a plan to bring the two lovers together and helps them to escape. When Madame Géronte finds out, she demands that the doctor be hanged. Things look bad for Sganarelle, but then his wife Martine turns up ....

The play thrives on crude jokes and drastic situation comedy, in which the audience is always better informed than the characters in the play; they alone see through the phrases and hypocritical machinations of those in power.

Photo: Ralph Bachmann

29.+30.6. & 6.+7.7., 7.30 p.m. in each case (the game is played in almost any weather)

Eppstein Castle, Auf der Burg, Eppstein

2for1: Price category 1 = 21 €

On the day of the event, 6.30-7 p.m., box office