Isabelle Huppert stands out among actresses due to her audacious choices of roles, both for films (I Heart Huckabees, 8 Women, The Piano Teacher) and theatre. Her intelligence and intuition are evident in the parts she plays.

In a quaint Austrian ski resort, things are not quite what they seem. Hermann, the manager of a paper mill, has decided that sexual gratification begins at home. Which means Gerti - his wife and property. Gerti is not asked how she feels about the use Hermann puts her to. She is a receptacle into which Hermann pours his juices brutally.

Kurt Janisch is an ambitious, but frustrated country policeman. Things are not going right in his life. But a country policeman gets talking to a lot of people in the line of duty - particularly lonely, middle-aged women. Matters go from bad to worse. Someone sees too much, knows too much. Soon there's a body in a lake and a murderer to be caught.

Erika Kohut teaches piano at the Vienna Conservatory by day. But by night she trawls the porn shows of Vienna while her mother, whom she loves and hates in equal measure, waits up for her. Into this emotional pressure-cooker bounds music student and ladies' man, Walter Klemmer. With Walter as her student, Erika spirals out of control.

The setting is an idyllic Alpine village where a woman's underwear factory nestles in the woods. Two factory workers, Brigitte and Paula, dream and talk about finding happiness, a comfortable home and a good man. They realize that their quest will be as hard as work at the factory.

One of a series of drama texts published to coincide with theatrical premieres of new plays and translations.

Shows how actions of the present are determined by thoughts of the past.