Yhdistysjuhla: Huvinäytelmä Kolmessa Näytöksessä

A comedic play written in the late 19th century. It centers on the hullabaloo of a choral association’s festival and the domestic friction it sparks: attorney Bruno Scheffler’s eagerness to attend clashes with his principled wife Bertha, while the prosperous Bolzau household is drawn into the preparations, and two talkative bachelors, Hartwig and Steinkirsch, find themselves smitten with Bolzau’s closely guarded niece Ludmilla. Expect social satire, romantic misfires, and farcical complications around speeches, ceremonies, and propriety. The opening of the play introduces Bertha tidying her husband’s study and dreading the coming festival as club functionary Schnake gushes about programs, speeches, and “sillitalkoot.” To stop Bruno from going, she burns his ribbon box, confronts him with the memory of last year’s drunken late return, and vows to leave if he attends; he stubbornly insists he will. Bruno’s friend Hartwig arrives with the urbane Steinkirsch; Bruno, flustered, fobs Steinkirsch off as a “secretary” to his wife and tries to billet him elsewhere. Steinkirsch unexpectedly reconnects with Ludmilla (whom he once helped in Baden-Baden), while Hartwig, instantly infatuated with the same “angel,” dashes off to find her. Meanwhile, at merchant Bolzau’s villa, his vigilant wife Vilhelmina frets over Ludmilla’s virtue as organizers press Bolzau into hosting duties; Bertha then turns up with a small bag, masking her marital quarrel with a story about a broken kitchen stove. The segment ends as Bruno appeals to Bolzau for help housing his guest and hints that his wife has already gone.