Premiere in Stuttgart: To the Beautiful View” – A game of fate!

Premiere in Stuttgart: To the Beautiful View” – A game of fate!

On June 22, 2025, the Schauspiel Stuttgart experienced the premiere of Ödön von Horváth's play “Zur Beautiful View”. Not everything that is meant by this reflects reality, as a quote from Ada, Baroness von Stetten, makes clear: “I'm completely different, I only get around to it so rarely.” These words take the audience into a hotel that does not offer its guests the expected beauty of the view, but rather an oppressive atmosphere.

The Hotel “Zur Schöne Aussicht” presents itself as a place where people’s concerns are omnipresent. Here, hotel owner Strasser, a former officer and bon vivant, and the other characters struggle with a lack of money and personal problems. The wealthy Ada von Stetten in particular has a good knack for financing the lives of others; her pleasure and changing lovers are her way of escaping the dreary everyday life. While Strasser tries to offer his guests a certain quality of life, it quickly becomes clear that intoxication and pleasure are not the solutions to their challenges.

A game of fates and secrets

The relationship constellations in the play are complex. There's Max, the waiter with connections to the criminal world, Karl, a chauffeur with a dark past, and Müller, the wine merchant who doesn't shy away from introducing his fascist views while forcing Strasser to act with debts. Particularly exciting is the new character Christine, who was in the hotel nine months ago and confronts Strasser: She claims the paternity of her child, which he coldly denies. Strasser makes a plan with the other men, but it fails because Christine turns out to be much less needy than he imagined.

Horváth's crisp dialogue and the unpredictable plot twists bring a breath of fresh air to the drama. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, theater can once again rely on its unpredictability, which increases the appeal and deeper understanding of the longing to be different. This theme runs through Horváth's work and gives the characters a special depth.

The theater as a mirror of our time

This confrontation with reality is not just limited to Stuttgart. At the Deutsches Theater, director Jürgen Kruse shows the fates of the characters bluntly and sensitively in his production of “Faith, Love, Hope”. In an unconventional setting that draws the audience directly into the action, Kruse deals with themes of despair and human conflict, similar to what Horváth addresses in “The Beautiful View”.

Both productions make it clear: the challenges people face are timeless and relevant. In a world where money often determines relationships and the prospect of happiness is more illusion than reality, theater remains a place of reflection and change.