The theater maker
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| Title: | The theater maker |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Thomas Bernhard |
| Publishing year: | 1984 |
| Premiere: | 17th August 1985 |
| Place of premiere: | Salzburg Festival , Salzburg State Theater |
| Place and time of the action: | Black deer in Utzbach, dance hall |
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Der Theatermacher is a play by the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard , published in 1984 and premiered in 1985 .
content
The play is about the state actor Bruscon, who stops on tour in the small village of Utzbach and tries to bring his comedy “The Wheel of History” successfully onto the stage. His whole family - the wife, son and daughter - are involved as actors.
At the beginning, Bruscon insists vehemently on the host of the inn where the game is to be played that the fire chief of the village must allow the emergency light to be extinguished at the end of the play. Bruscon expresses his displeasure with many circumstances in the area. He complains to the landlord about the sultriness of the room, fears that the ground will break through and the town of Utzbach seems to him basically much too small for his “outstanding” work. In addition, there is also "blood sausage day", as he learns from the host, since hardly any villager has time.
During the rehearsals of the play with his children and the woman who appears to have had a cold (“your mother invests all her talent in the illnesses she plays”), the theater maker Bruscon turns out to be a real tyrant. In recurring phrases he alternately brushes down the acting talent of the others, whereas he always highlights himself as a great "state actor" and demands servant behavior from the others. Often he gets entangled in contradicting statements without noticing: (to the son) "You are my greatest disappointment, you know that, but you have never disappointed me, you are my most useful." The only moment of rehearsal time in which The family is spared the tirades of Bruscon, is the shared enjoyment of the fried potato soup that Bruscon had expressly ordered from the host at the beginning. In the course of the play it becomes clear that behind Bruscon's arrogance and self-centeredness, weariness and self-doubt are hidden.
The performance of Bruscon's comedy, which he claims all comedies are included, ultimately goes wrong. After a heavy thunderclap at the beginning of the performance, the audience, who turned out to be quite large, left the inn because lightning had struck the parsonage and it was raining through the roof of the hall. Bruscon is left disappointed in the rain.
Allusions
The theater maker is rich in allusions to Salzburg and the Salzburg Festival
- The Schwarzer Hirsch location in Utzbach alludes to the Hotel Goldener Hirsch (Salzburg) in Salzburg, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the festival district.
- The dispute over emergency lighting relates to the scandal surrounding the second performance of Bernhard's play Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige , which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 1972 under the direction of Claus Peymann .
- In the run-up to the premiere, Oskar Werner was named as a model for the theater maker Bruscon, but this was denied or questioned by Claus Peymann, the director of the premiere.
Individual evidence
- ↑ "I always dream of Thomas Bernhard". In: connybischofberger.com. February 5, 2011, accessed on February 8, 2017 : “Of course I'm a Thomas Bernhard figure! I'm the crazy guy, the theater maker. Only one fool wrote that Oskar Werner was meant. "
- ↑ Peymann: "I was loud and know-it-all". In: diepresse.com. January 7, 2010, accessed on February 8, 2017 : "[...] then I just ask who Thomas Bernhard meant by the theater maker - Oskar Werner, Peter Stein or Claus Peymann?"
- ↑ Quote: [...] then I just ask who Thomas Bernhard meant by the theater maker - Oskar Werner, Peter Stein or Claus Peymann? Sigrid Löffler : "Between us, I am a classic" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1985 ( online ).