Malarina

Cabaret "Trophy Heist." In German.

Why do men like Donald Trump or Johann Gudenus choose women from the Balkans? And how does one become such a woman? In her second solo performance, Malarina delves into the phenomenon of “trophy wives” from the East and arrives at a conclusion that collectors don’t like to hear: Trophy wives are usually not only physically superior to their husbands.

As she herself recounts, she was born in Picka Materina, Serbia—a town with no highway access. Her parents came to Austria as guest workers; their stay was meant to be temporary—just until the Serbian economy recovered. When that hope was abandoned, they brought their children over and raised them in Innsbruck. In 2011, Malarina moved to Vienna—in her words, “the capital of misanthropy.” Since 2019, she has been working from there to foster international understanding among “Schwabos,” “Tschuschen,” and “elite Tschuschen,” as she calls them, using the medium of cabaret.

The Falter has described the result as an extraordinary blend of a politically satirical history lesson and ethnocomedy. The description hits the mark, because she weaves both together simultaneously: her own story of origin and a look at the circumstances in which men display women on a shelf like trophies. The fact that she doesn’t pose the question of being turned into a trophy from the outside, but rather asks it of herself, is what sets her apart from cheap mockery: Anyone who talks about women who’ve climbed the social ladder without sharing their own story of upward mobility is taking the easy way out. Just how well this works is evident from her list of awards: four accolades in three years, both here and across the border.

“Clever and highly amusing” (profil)

2024 German Cabaret Award (Sponsorship Award from the City of Mainz)
2024 Minden Stichling
2023 Salzburger Stier
2022 Austrian Cabaret Award (Encouragement Award)