"Nothing conveys the feeling of infinity as much as stupidity."

The people who run the butcher shop, the toy store and the tobacconist’s go about their daily lives. Their crises – whether personal, social or economic – are there to stay, they feel. Oskar the butcher has long had an eye on Marianne, whose father owns the toy store. But Marianne is attracted to the perpetually penniless Alfred, who’s having an affair with Valerie, the widow from the tobacco shop. Marianne’s father promises Oskar his daughter’s hand in marriage, but Marianne begin an affair with Alfred and breaks off the engagement. Valerie consoles herself with the dumb Nazi student Erich. After Marianne bears Alfred’s child, he quickly loses interest in her and their relationship falls apart. The child is raised by Alfred’s mother and grandmother in the countryside. And Marianne, rejected by her father, struggles to get by as a nightclub dancer.
 
Horvath’s “Tales from the Vienna Woods” celebrated its world premiere on November 2, 1931 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Set during the era of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, the play reveals the darkness lurking behind society‘s false sentimentality.