Sturm im Wasserglas

(Tempest in a Teacup) by Bruno Frank.

   Premiered 1930. Aromantic comedy about civic corruption, the press, lost dogs, and the possibility of love—all of which nearly guaranteed interest among German audiences in the waning days of the Weimar Republic. Frank's superb use of familiar comic devices and romantic intrigue positioned it for lasting, and lucrative, approbation. It was the most popular comedy of the 1930-1931 season. The play's central characters were attractive members of the upper crust in republican Germany who meet an unexpected but well-deserved downfall.

   In the luxurious drawing room of the city's vice mayor Herr Thoss, Viktoria Thoss welcomes a newspaper reporter who has come to interview her husband. Their conversation is interrupted by the poorly dressed, uneducated Frau Vogel, who excitedly pleads for her dog Toni, recently taken into custody. She agrees to depart when Viktoria says she will advise her husband about her dog. When Herr Thoss arrives, he is preoccupied with political matters such as the salary of the city council's doorman. Then Frau Vogel reappears to plead with Thoss to help her, but he dismisses her claim and has her thrown out of his house. Thoss's behavior in front of a newspaper reporter sets off a chain of events leading to his downfall. The reporter writes a lead story the next day from the dog's viewpoint, and citizens call for Thoss's impeachment. Further investigations reveal that Thoss is romantically involved with the wife of the reporter's employer, the newspaper publisher. The transparent theme of the play is that politicians are jaded, while Frau Vogel and her dog, like the German people in general, are genuine and unaffected. The play's conclusion takes place at the city courthouse, where Thoss has departed for Berlin to take a job running a big company, and Frau Vogel meantime has received 20,000 marks in donations for Toni. A veterinarian testifies that Toni is a mutt with no claim to a pedigree (satirizing Nazi racial theories) and guesses his worth to be about eight marks. Viktoria appears to testify on the reporter's behalf, telling the court that despite the dog's lack of breeding, he has worth beyond monetary value because he is pure in heart.