Panharmonicon

Panharmonicon is a play about the diplomatic machinations of the Congress Of Vienna 1815, the first time the phrase "united nations" was used. It's also about Beethoven and his premature deafness, technology, the incompetence of the ruling class and the notion of pan-European identity.

It's a comedy set inside the Austrian Court during the Napoleonic wars, as the European world is first torn apart and then rather miraculously put back together. Beethoven is frustrated by the incompetence of the Court Orchestra, and is therefore intrigued when the Court Mechanic, one Maelzel, invents a Mechanical Orchestra (the Panharmonicon) capable (or so he says!) of replacing the orchestra itself. The Emperor is also impressed by the Panharmonicon, and sacks the orchestra, saying he no longer needs them. The orchestra plot to destroy Maelzel's invention and get their jobs back. Meanwhile Beethoven goes stone deaf, and disguises the fact by pretending to be the classic rude, unkempt eccentric artist, and the Austrian state is ultimately protected from the Emperor's incompetent governing throughout by the astonishingly clever Machiavellian diplomacy of his Chief Minister Prince Metternich. Meanwhile, the Austrian currency collapses and then recovers, Maelzel's wife Gretel makes a fortune as a hooker to the diplomats of the Congress, and the French Talleyrand and the British Castlereagh both appear. Talleyrand's great rival is Metternich himself, but Castlereagh can't keep up with either of them, and he also turns up at the Congress late.

Cast: 10 men, 2 women

Production history: Nottingham Playhouse (reading), April 2002

This play is available for download in French translation

Thoughts: pdf