Sprenger and Witting

“No tolerance for toxic relationship behavior”

Kristina Sprenger and Manuel Witting in a heated exchange of words(Bild: Stefan Joham)

Domestic violence is on the rise. A woman is murdered in Austria every ten days. There are 40 restraining orders every day. But where do the first acts of cruelty begin? Actors Kristina Sprenger and Manuel Witting hold up a mirror to couples with their play "Kleine Eheverbrechen" (Little Marriage Crimes). 

"Krone": On March 2 and 3, you will both be on stage in Oberschützen and Mattersburg in the tragicomedy "Kleine Eheverbrechen" by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. What is this play about?  
Manuel Witting: It's about infidelity, cheating, suspicions and a cynical look at what people put up with and do to each other in a partnership, even though they claim to love each other. It is also about how relationships change. And how time can become a danger and corrupt trust.
Kristina Sprenger: Specifically, it's about the married couple Gilles and Lisa, who seem happy until Gilles loses his memory in an accident. When Lisa brings him back home after a stay in hospital, she tells him what he is like and what he was like before. You don't know who is fooling whom. Lisa wonders whether she isn't just glossing over or playing down the past in order to shape her husband into the person she wants him to be. In short, not everything is as it seems. The bottom line is that you have to work on yourself in order to be happy with someone else. And: that comfort and routine are the biggest enemies of any relationship.