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Die Theaterstücke in einem Band
575 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Peter Handke
306 books1,189 followersPeter Handke (* 6. Dezember 1942 in Griffen, Kärnten) ist ein österreichischer Schriftsteller und Übersetzer.
Peter Handke is an Avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright. His body of work has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019. He has also collaborated with German director Wim Wenders, writing the script for The Wrong Move and co-writing the screenplay for Wings of Desire.
Peter Handke is an Avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright. His body of work has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019. He has also collaborated with German director Wim Wenders, writing the script for The Wrong Move and co-writing the screenplay for Wings of Desire.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 14, 2020
This collection of eleven of Handke's plays in chronological order was difficult to get through. I think it was the plays that made his reputation, but most of them are no clearer than the fiction; just the opposite.
The first play here is "Publikumbeschimpfung" (Insulting the Public, 1966), which had a huge success. It consists of actors standing on stage telling the spectators this is not a play, we are not characters, we are actors, we are speaking to the audience, we are not representing anything, there is no story, there is no fourth wall, there is no suspension of belief, you are an audience, you paid for tickets, your nose itches, you need to cough, etc. (And many of the claims contradict one another.) The play ends up with the actors "insulting" the audience: you Communists, you Social Democrats, you petty bourgeois, you Fascists, you Nazis, you Jews, you journalists, you newspaper readers, you academics, you... etc. This section was also full of topical allusions to German politics of the time, and was obviously intended to be improvised for later performances. I wasn't all that impressed reading it, but then I watched two very different performances on Youtube, one of the early German performances on a traditional (but minimalist) stage and one much later American performance (a bit toned-down, probably a school play) where the actors mixed with the public in the same space, and it is very effective as theater. It combines two of the main influences on modern theater, Beckett's theater of the absurd and Brecht's rejection of theatrical illusion, and I don't know of any playwright who takes them farther, whether or not that is a good thing.
The second play "Weissagung" (Prophecies, 1996) would probably work best as a radio play, and is the most understandable thing Handke ever wrote; it turns proverbs and clichés into "prophecies": the wind will wander like the wind, the snow will be as white as snow, the rabbits will breed like rabbits, Gary Cooper will walk like Gary Cooper, and so forth. Some of the images were unfamiliar to me and were probably German proverbs or taken from German literature but most are universal expressions. It was quite funny.
The next two, "Selbstbezichtigung" (Selfaccusation, 1966) and "Hilferufe" (Call for help, 1966) are similar to "Publikumbeschimpfung" in that the actors speak alternating or in unison to the audience rather than to each other, as if it were a soliloquy divided between multiple actors. The first describes the development of a first person narrator from babyhood to adulthood learning to speak, walk, finally to be responsible, feel guilt and so forth; in the second the narrator tries to call for help but can't remember the correct word.
"Kaspar" (1966) is one of his best known plays, and again seeing it in English on Youtube it was far more effective (though even less understandable) than reading it. It is based loosely (very loosely) on the story of Kaspar Hauser, the boy who appeared from nowhere knowing only one sentence. In Handke's play the story is turned into a discussion of language and epistemology.
If the first four plays are essentially all dialogue (or monologue) without any action, the next play, "Das Mündel will Vormund sein" (The Ward would be the Guardian, 1969) and the last play, "Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wusten" (The Hour when we don't know about each other, 1992) are action without any words. In the first an older and a younger man try to establish dominance through various absurd actions, and in the last people in different costumes wander across the stage and carry out various actions, some everyday "normal" and some totally bizarre, without noticing or interacting with each other.
"Quodlibet" (1969), "Der Ritt über den Bodensee" (1970), and "Die Unvernünftigen sterben aus" (1973) seem on the surface more like usual plays, in that the characters actually talk to one another and say the sort of things characters in a play might say, but not in any discernable connection. "Über die Dörfer" (1981), called a "dramatisches Gedicht", despite some absurd elements makes more sense. It begins with a normal situation, siblings quarreling over an inheritance, and goes on to defences of the working class by one brother and of the petty bourgoisie by the sister against the seeming contempt of the wealthier and more educated brother; there is a section of abstract existential despair followed by an abstract "inspirational" ending. "Das Spiel vom Fragen oder Die Reise zum Sonoren Land" (1989) is ostensibly about asking questions and has Parzifal as one of the characters.
If this had been the only thing I had read by Handke, he certainly wouldn't be a favorite author, but I would consider him at least interesting.
The first play here is "Publikumbeschimpfung" (Insulting the Public, 1966), which had a huge success. It consists of actors standing on stage telling the spectators this is not a play, we are not characters, we are actors, we are speaking to the audience, we are not representing anything, there is no story, there is no fourth wall, there is no suspension of belief, you are an audience, you paid for tickets, your nose itches, you need to cough, etc. (And many of the claims contradict one another.) The play ends up with the actors "insulting" the audience: you Communists, you Social Democrats, you petty bourgeois, you Fascists, you Nazis, you Jews, you journalists, you newspaper readers, you academics, you... etc. This section was also full of topical allusions to German politics of the time, and was obviously intended to be improvised for later performances. I wasn't all that impressed reading it, but then I watched two very different performances on Youtube, one of the early German performances on a traditional (but minimalist) stage and one much later American performance (a bit toned-down, probably a school play) where the actors mixed with the public in the same space, and it is very effective as theater. It combines two of the main influences on modern theater, Beckett's theater of the absurd and Brecht's rejection of theatrical illusion, and I don't know of any playwright who takes them farther, whether or not that is a good thing.
The second play "Weissagung" (Prophecies, 1996) would probably work best as a radio play, and is the most understandable thing Handke ever wrote; it turns proverbs and clichés into "prophecies": the wind will wander like the wind, the snow will be as white as snow, the rabbits will breed like rabbits, Gary Cooper will walk like Gary Cooper, and so forth. Some of the images were unfamiliar to me and were probably German proverbs or taken from German literature but most are universal expressions. It was quite funny.
The next two, "Selbstbezichtigung" (Selfaccusation, 1966) and "Hilferufe" (Call for help, 1966) are similar to "Publikumbeschimpfung" in that the actors speak alternating or in unison to the audience rather than to each other, as if it were a soliloquy divided between multiple actors. The first describes the development of a first person narrator from babyhood to adulthood learning to speak, walk, finally to be responsible, feel guilt and so forth; in the second the narrator tries to call for help but can't remember the correct word.
"Kaspar" (1966) is one of his best known plays, and again seeing it in English on Youtube it was far more effective (though even less understandable) than reading it. It is based loosely (very loosely) on the story of Kaspar Hauser, the boy who appeared from nowhere knowing only one sentence. In Handke's play the story is turned into a discussion of language and epistemology.
If the first four plays are essentially all dialogue (or monologue) without any action, the next play, "Das Mündel will Vormund sein" (The Ward would be the Guardian, 1969) and the last play, "Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wusten" (The Hour when we don't know about each other, 1992) are action without any words. In the first an older and a younger man try to establish dominance through various absurd actions, and in the last people in different costumes wander across the stage and carry out various actions, some everyday "normal" and some totally bizarre, without noticing or interacting with each other.
"Quodlibet" (1969), "Der Ritt über den Bodensee" (1970), and "Die Unvernünftigen sterben aus" (1973) seem on the surface more like usual plays, in that the characters actually talk to one another and say the sort of things characters in a play might say, but not in any discernable connection. "Über die Dörfer" (1981), called a "dramatisches Gedicht", despite some absurd elements makes more sense. It begins with a normal situation, siblings quarreling over an inheritance, and goes on to defences of the working class by one brother and of the petty bourgoisie by the sister against the seeming contempt of the wealthier and more educated brother; there is a section of abstract existential despair followed by an abstract "inspirational" ending. "Das Spiel vom Fragen oder Die Reise zum Sonoren Land" (1989) is ostensibly about asking questions and has Parzifal as one of the characters.
If this had been the only thing I had read by Handke, he certainly wouldn't be a favorite author, but I would consider him at least interesting.
Displaying 1 of 1 review