Version by the Theater in der Josefstadt with the support of Peter Turrini based on Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrat and Josef von Sternberg's film Der blaue Engel and using the screenplay by Carl Zuckmayer, Robert Liebmann and Karl Gustav Vollmoeller.

Premiere on 19 August 2009 - 7.30 p.m., Kornmarkt Theatre

In summer 2009, Vienna's Theater in der Josefstadt will stage guest performances of Lola - The Blue Angel, a dramatisation of Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrat. The novel was previously adapted in 1930 for the classic movie The Blue Angel which made Marlene Dietrich world-famous.

Professor Raat – dubbed Unrat ("rubbish") by his pupils at the grammar school where he teaches – is an old-fashioned and excessively strict man whose mission in life has been to educate. One day when fanatically pursing troublemakers from his class, he stumbles upon a twilight world of cabarets and sleazy bars. There he encounters the lascivious Lola, a "barefoot dancer" and singer at the nightclub "Der blaue Engel". "I am primed for love from head to foot", she sings to him. He is fascinated and follows her to her changing room – where he awakes next morning.

Raat becomes infatuated with Lola, and continues to regard her as an "artiste", while she is in fact only interested in his wealth. He quits his position at the school and eventually marries her, throwing bourgeois respectability and morality to the winds. The "educationalist philistine", repressed and conventional, undergoes a complete transformation into an ardent lover – till his passion finally undoes him. 

Further performances: 21, 22 and 23 August 2009 - 7.30 p.m.