Robert Dorsay

The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!

A 19th-century London cabaret singer is deported to prison in Australia. Her crime? Taking the blame when her lover bounces checks.

A lawyer is abandoned by his wife. To save face, he introduces his friend to a client as his wife. But she has just been divorced and was supposed to be set up with this friend by an aunt. Numerous misunderstandings arise until in the end everyone breaks up reconciled.

Constance, the young widow of a wealthy American, gets a love letter from the Engadine region, signed by the famous guide Toni Anewater she had met during a holiday in the previous year. Constanze and her friend Dorothy therefore go to Switzerland for winter sports. But identical love letters to other ladies in London, Paris and Rome have been sent. Toni does not know anything about the letters. Everything seems to be a cunning of the hotel owner to attract tourists.

A travelling cinema arrives in a small, Italian town. The only place suitable for the screenings is the inn run by Mirandolina, a woman with an impeccable reputation. Tino, who works for the cinema, becomes enamoured of Mirandolina but finds his advances to her hindered by her upright reputation and the rivalry of local figures.

1900: Much to the chagrin of Baron Uhlendorff in Schoneberg, the city of Berlin is expanding. But what is much worse is that his son George is in love with Traute, the daughter of the master carpenter Schradecke. So the son must leave for South America as a diplomat and Father Schradecke has to intercept his letters to his daughter. Traute is inconsolable; 1913: The early days of the small artisans have now given way to them becoming big businessmen. Traute continues to wait for George in spite of the stubborn proposing by the carpenter Paul Buttner.

Erika, a dancer without a gig, helps out at her brother's gas station. She's immediately courted by several men. Her favorite is the nephew of a quirky, old antique dealer. But the dealer refuses to give his nephew his permission to marry him. So Erika turns the tables and charms her uncle until he finally understands that his nephew is in love with her.

About how the British broke the Brazilian monopoly on natural rubber. The storyline suggests a complex relation between adventure, military conquest and imperialism.