The provincialist Adam saves the beautiful stranger Eva from suicide by drowning and takes her along to the “Automatenbüfett”, the restaurant owned by his feisty wife. Eva’s arrival is an attraction to this largely male community and the shrewd Adam knows how to use it to further his plans. Martin Zehetgruber has designed the eponymous automat, which provides a looming backdrop to sometimes cringeworthily funny and sometimes heartrendingly sad encounters between the outstanding cast.

Anna Gmeyner was born in Vienna in 1902 and like the heroines of her stage plays she remained an autonomous outsider. During the Weimar Republic she worked in Berlin as a dramatist and as a dramaturge but as a political exile she moved to Paris and London, where she wrote film scripts and novels. Her first stage play “Automat” dates from 1932 and was inspired by the technological innovations of her age as well as by the reactionary attitudes of the bourgeoisie. The play proved a draw in major theatres in Hamburg, Berlin and Zurich before its author was forced to flee in the face of persecution by the National Socialists.

Cast:
- Herr Adam: Michael Maertens
- Frau Adam: Maria Happel
- Eva: Katharina Lorenz
- Pankraz/Willibald Boxer: Christoph Luser
- Puttgam: Dörte Lyssewski
- Cäcilie/Redakteur Arendt: Annamária Láng
- Schulrat Wittibtöter: Robert Reinagl
- Apotheker Hüslein: Hans Dieter Knebel
- Oberförster Wutlitz: Daniel Jesch
- Piano: Tommy Hojsa

Venue: Burgtheater Wien
Stage director: Barbara Frey
Stage design: Martin Zehetgruber
Dramaturgy: Andreas Karlaganis
Film director: Catharina Kleiber

Total playing time: 106 minutes
Language: German
Subtitles: German, English
16:9
PCM Stereo 2.0
DVD 9
Region: 0 (NTSC)

A production by ZDF/3sat, recorded at Burgtheater Wien