The third act - the cabaret shows
'But the red will absolutely kill the brown. That's exactly what we want!' (30)
When the Laterndl re-opened in new premises at the Austrian Centre in North London, the situation had changed completely. Most internees had been released and refugees had endured the Blitz alongside Londoners. They were evolving from outsiders to fellow sufferers. Another important change was that the Soviet Union had entered the war in June 1941. This enabled Communists to openly support the war and now there was pressure to produce more political plays.
Laterna Magica premiered in September 1941 and the first sketch addressed the difficulty of creating political content. The title Stoffwahl can be translated as choice (Wahl) of fabric (Stoff) or content of a literary work (Stoff). In the sketch actors chose remnants for costumes, first brown then red fabric. The sales girl protested that the red will kill the brown and they answered that this is exactly what they wanted. The sketch was actually repeated in the next cabaret show Here is the News, positioning the Laterndl firmly on the left.
The other pieces were less political, featuring a song by a harrassed refugee waiter at the Lyons Corner House to music by Rossini and imagining a happy family reunion of refugees returning from across the globe to Vienna after the war. The anglicized returnee, who only talks about the weather and doesn't want to shake hands, got the biggest laugh.
'Today it's about everything. Each of us - you, me [...] must use all his strength so that we win the decisive battle'(31)
In her article 'Self-criticism of the critic' published in October 1941 Eva Priester appeals to everyone - 'each of us - you, me' - to join in the fight against Fascism. And thus the next show, Here is the News, which premiered in February 1942, included her first piece for the Laterndl. Eva Priester was the only woman to have written for the Laterndl, and unlike the other writers, she did not have a background in cabaret. Priester was a journalist, poet, and Communist activist and Höchste Eisenbahn (It's high time) was written in support of the Free Austrian Movement's campaign to encourage Austrians into war work.
One particular sketch by Franz Hartl entitled Brennende Erde (Burning Ground) polarised opinions. Hartl’s often brutal realism, heightened by its juxtaposition of comic sketches and songs, caused the biggest discussion between those who felt exile theatre should offer an escape from the grim reality of war, and those who thought it should seek to engage with that reality.
'Maybe they are coming across the sea. Maybe they have landed in France' (32)
The last proper Kleinkunst show - No orchids for Mr Hitler - premiered in October 1942. Eva Priester contributed three sketches, the strongest and most harrowing was Das Urteil (The Verdict). It is set in a prison cell with two women condemned to death, on the last night before their execution. In the final scene they cling to the hope that the footsteps coming towards their cell door are those of liberating Allied forces rather than Nazi soldiers. The final line of the sketch is a desperate plea for a second front. It was written in support of the campaign for a second front which was also one of the central demands of the Free Austrian Movement.
This was the last cabaret show staged in the evenings, afterwards all carbaret shows were relegated to Sunday afternoons and there are no reviews or programmes for any of these except for Österreichische Rhapsodie (Austrian Rhapsody).
In November 1944 the Laterndl staged the musical revue Österreichische Rhapsodie, written by Paul Knepler, a former librettist for Franz Lehar and father of Georg Knepler, one of the mainstays of the Laterndl. The production fulsomely indulged its audience’s need for nostalgia, while seeking to demonstrate the distinctiveness of Austrian culture. The audience loved it, although the review in the German exile press Die Zeitung condemned its uncritical stance towards the old Austria.