Jan Lauwers stages John Cassavetes’ Begin the Beguine for the Burgtheater in Vienna with great poise. No one looks so good in dress shirts as John Cassavetes’ Husbands. In that 1970 film, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and Cassavetes himself play three New York husbands who are cast into an existential crisis by the death of a friend and fight it by holding a party lasting several days. In 1987, shortly before his death, this great American author wrote a play for Falk and Gazzara, but it never reached the stage. It is only now that 'Begin the Beguine' is enjoying its premiere, in the Akademietheater, the smaller venue at the Burgtheater in Vienna. To start with, a still from Husbands is shown. And although these men do not have the same names as in the film, one can see the play as a continuation of Husbands. The dress shirts which of course they here wear again certainly look great on them. But they are no longer 40 and no longer husbands. Gito Spaiano bears his cross with bitter dignity; he has lost his faith in love. His friend Morris Wine – always chasing the rainbow – has exactly the same feeling, but deals with it differently. Because he no longer has any illusions about love, he is content with the illusion of love. Cassavetes puts his dispassionate heroes to the test: they have retreated to a flat and do not leave it for weeks. They may have withdrawn there to die. But first they want to try something out: they ask a pimp to provide them with a series of prostitutes, who of course never satisfy their complicated demands. This is because Gito and Morris are, at the bottom of their hearts, still waiting for love – but that could be a long wait. The Belgian Jan Lauwers provides the required combination of empathy and cool 'Begin the Beguine' is just as absurd as a play by Beckett, as chauvinistic as a men-only night and as philosophical as a comedy by Chekhov. The perfect director for this robust mixture would have been Cassavetes himself, but he died 25 years ago. The only director who can provide the required combination of empathy and cool is perhaps the Belgian Jan Lauwers, whose renowned performance group Needcompany has been collaborating with the Burgtheater for several years. This joint venture has not been exceptionally fruitful so far, but this time it’s a bulls-eye. Firstly, Lauwers has created the right mood for the play. The acting seen in German theatres is rarely so laconic and nonchalant. This also yields a number of instances of Needcompany magic. Secondly, the interaction of the two companies is very convincing: the Burgtheater supplies the perfectly cast Messrs Falk Rockstroh as Gito (the Gazzara part) and Oliver Stokowski (Morris/Falk), while Needcompany’s Inge Van Bruystegem and Sung-Im Her play the prostitutes. The ladies mostly speak English, and their body language also shows clearly that they from a different realm of theatre. But this is not at all off-putting. On the contrary, it only makes the breakdown of communication between the weirdo pimps and the overburdened whores clearer and funnier too. At the end we again see the still from Husbands, this time with the three gentlemen’s dates of birth and death, all of them having since gone over the rainbow. Being a great Cassavetes fan, Lauwers has also incorporated a declaration of love into the play: “Johnny, I love you!” This was completely unnecessary, as the whole play is one big tribute to John Cassavetes and his two favourite actors. And of course to their dress shirts.