It is the 3rd of November 1918. At a convalescent home in the Karawankas mountains, a group of officers from across the Habsburg Empire recovers from war injuries: 'a German from Carinthia, a Slovene from Carniola, a Hungarian from Arad and a Czech from Prague wish to drink a toast to bloodshed with Lieutenant Vanini from Trento!' Snowed in for three weeks and cut off from the outside world, they risk missing the end of the war - for it is the day of the armistice between the war-weary forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy. But a communist-sympathising sailor who has deserted brings the news. And with the knowledge of the end of the Danube Monarchy, the cohesion among the comrades also disintegrates, and the metamorphosis turns into a downward spiral...Franz Theodor Csokor's play, premiered at the Burgtheater in 1937 and filmed in 1965, is a 'Requiem for Old Austria' and was also intended as a bulwark against National Socialism. Csokor's idea of an empire 'built from people and not from nations' fascinates to this day. At HERBSTGOLD 2021, Vienna's renowned Pygmalion Theater presents a new production of this milestone of Austrian theatre, enhancing the musical side of the festival with a theatrical element.

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