Manuel Rubey and Simon Schwarz

THE RESTAURANT

Manuel Rubey and Simon Schwarz together have four left hands. At least. Yet the two friends think it’s a brilliant idea to open a restaurant. Simon once played a chef in a movie, and Manuel enjoys drinking wine. That should be enough expertise, they think. The upscale restaurant in the middle of the province is supposed to outshine anything seen before. In reality, however, it looks more like a candidate for “Botched Construction.”

When the restaurant then burns down, arson quickly comes to mind. At least for the local policewoman, who uses the investigation with the two actors to kick off her true crime podcast.

The search for the firestarter takes Manuel Rubey and Simon Schwarz back into the past, deep into their own minds, and raises essential questions such as: Aren’t we all, in some way, little arsonists? In our friendships? At work? In relationships?

For the policewoman, the case is clear anyway: Rubey did it—he “warmed up” the place. Because murderers may always be the gardeners, but the arsonists are always from Vienna. *

*We decided not to gender the saying.

Book: Sebastian Huber, Jürgen Marschal, Manuel Rubey, Simon Schwarz
Direction: Sebastian Huber & Jürgen Marschal

Program and cast