About the work
Komtesse Mizzi oder Der Familientag (Countess Mizzi; or, The Family Reunion) is a one-act comedy written in 1907/08; it first appeared on 19 April 1908 in the Neue Freie Presse and premiered on 5 January 1909 at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna.
Plot
Prince Egon Ravenstein brings his illegitimate, seventeen-year-old son Philipp to the boy's mother, Countess Mizzi, who gave the child away at birth and has since turned down all of the prince's proposals of marriage. In the garden of the family villa, everyone's secrets gradually come to light, until the family plans a joint trip to Belgium.
Cultural significance
Schnitzler noted that the premiere drew a great deal of laughter and repeated curtain calls, though the effect eased somewhat toward the end. Scholars describe the play as a light-handed but precisely calculated comedy of manners, set among people who each keep a secret from everyone else.