Hörspiele · Radyo Tiyatrosu Arşivi

Das Liebeskonzil - Hörspiel

April 12, 2026·55 min·3 clips

The Devil describes syphilis's ten-year progression: glassy eyes by week two, nose into the soup bowl by year one, a 'withered skeleton with gaping mouth asking Why?' after ten years.

1. Das Liebeskonzil is an Austrian radio play produced by ORF in 2014, directed by Peter Kaiser, based on Oskar Panizza's 1894 drama that was banned for blasphemy and resulted in Panizza's imprisonment. 2. The cast of characters is listed by a single voice — 'all of them, me' — including Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI), his family, cardinals, papal mistresses Vanozza and Giulia Farnese, ambassadors, courtesans, and heavenly figures. 3. The opening stage direction places the action in 'spring 1495 — the first historically documented date of the outbreak of the plague of lust, syphilis.' 4. The play opens in heaven where God the Father — described as 'a very old man with white hair, watery bug-eyes, weeping eye-sacks, bent head' — enters coughing and wheezing, attended by nursing angels with warming bottles and spit-bowls. 5. A winged messenger arrives from Naples with an account of the city's debauchery: women with exposed breasts in the streets, men 'sparkling like billy-goats,' a priest before the altar with a prostitute, and giant phallic idols being carried through streets by processions of girls. 6. God convenes a divine council with Mary, Christ (pale, apathetic, silent), and the Devil, to address the crisis; God threatens to destroy humanity but is repeatedly reminded he 'can't create anymore' and would have no one left. 7. The council deliberates about what punishment would be 'damming' without destroying — they need humanity to remain 'capable of redemption' so the ecclesiastical apparatus remains functional. 8. Mary negotiates with the Devil, asking for a poison that wounds 'body and soul together' — since 'the soul is in there too' during sexual relations, a point that surprises God the Father. 9. The play cuts to the papal court of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) on Easter evening, 1495: twelve courtesans undress, naked male wrestlers compete for their favors, while the solemn vesper song plays from inside the church — the juxtaposition is the play's central satirical image. 10. In his tunnel-hell, the Devil delivers a self-aware monologue about his low status — lame, poorly dressed, resenting the 'golden chambers' above — but pivots to a creative manifesto: 'In your head live the thoughts of the earth. Work is your ancestry. Begin again.' 11. The Devil reviews three historical female figures as genetic candidates for his creation: Helena of Troy (pure instinct, 'without thinking'), Agrippina the Younger (impressive poisoning résumé but 'too ambitious, gets boring'), and Salome, who asked for a live human head 'to play with.' 12. Salome is selected because she desired possession without purpose — 'You wanted a living one, but when it was dead you wanted it anyway' — the Devil identifies this as the right 'instinct.' 13. The Devil creates a beautiful woman carrying the syphilis poison, intending her to be 'alluring and destructive simultaneously — but they should not notice the poison.' 14. The play's Heaven includes a comic schoolroom scene where Mary complains about Austrian children reciting prayers as 'pure automatons' and a starving German schoolteacher recites Boccaccio's Decameron to angel-children. 15. The created woman arrives in heaven; Mary 'devours her with her eyes, then kisses her in a sudden surge'; the Devil explains she is descended from Salome and will show her full qualities — her father's — only later 'with practice.' 16. The Devil then gives Mary a precise ten-year clinical timeline of syphilis's progression: glassy eyes at two weeks, hair and tooth loss at three months, nose collapsing into soup at year one, religious conversion 'in both directions' at year one, organ dissolution at year five, 'withered skeleton asking Why?' at year ten. 17. Mary weeps: 'The poor humans!' The Devil responds: 'They remain capable of redemption' — satisfying the contract. 18. The woman enters the papal Easter ceremony; Pope Alexander VI himself takes her arm as bishops, archbishops, and courtiers riot around her, daggers flash, and women scream. 19. The final scene shows the woman at dawn in the Roman street — disheveled, wearing two different slippers, brilliant jewelry — as the Devil rushes to her with instructions: move through the cardinals, archbishops, ambassadors, the papal nephews, then 'through all the monasteries and then to the rest of humanity.' 20. Listeners who appreciate satirical religious theatre, Viennese cabaret tradition, or the history of censored drama will find the production's staging of the Panizza text a richly produced and formally inventive radio work; those seeking straightforward religious content will find the blasphemous framing unsuitable.

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