Carl Zuckmayer’s play Der Fröhliche Weinberg premiered in 1925 - the same year Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf. In his “Lustspiel”, Zuckmayer celebrates a cheerful image of Germany while barely mentioning the growing danger of fascism. Looking back in 1961, he realized: “Back then, we believed we could laugh away the fascist threat as loud as we could - until one day there was nothing left to laugh about.”

A century later, the European theatre collective Boys* in Sync takes Der Fröhliche Weinberg as a starting point to think about theatre and the role of laughter. At a time when right-wing governments and movements are growing stronger in many parts of the world, the artists from Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Germany create their very own “international Lustspiel”. With a minimal theatrical set-up (four performers and four chairs) they wonder: Can fun be political, in a time of existential fascist threats?

SECOND SEASON is an ongoing research project about theatre narratives. It started in 2021 at Theater neben dem Turm in Marburg and premiered at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 2023. In 2025, to mark the 100th anniversary of Zuckmayer’s classic, Boys* in Sync toured SECOND SEASON through five European countries in an electric minibus. Since 2021, the performance has been shown at more than fifteen venues. One thing, however, has never changed: the performers on stage have never actually read Carl Zuckmayer’s Der Fröhliche Weinberg.

„Renate is shitting in Katja’s wine. 1, 2, 3 good shits.“