Ritter, Dene, Voss
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| Title: | Ritter, Dene, Voss |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Thomas Bernhard |
| Publishing year: | 1986 |
| Premiere: | August 18, 1986 |
| Place of premiere: | Salzburg Festival |
| Place and time of the action: | Mansion in Döbling, dining room |
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Ritter, Dene, Voss is a play by Thomas Bernhard .
The play was premiered under the direction of Claus Peymann at the Salzburg Festival on August 18, 1986 and then included in the repertoire of the Vienna Burgtheater . The premiere production was taken over in 2004 with the same actors in the repertoire of the Berliner Ensemble .
action
The three names forming the title of the play are those of the actors in the premiere: Ilse Ritter , Kirsten Dene and Gert Voss . Bernhard describes the people who embody them as follows: "Voss is Ludwig, Dene his older sister, Ritter his younger sister" (see Ludwig Wittgenstein: Literary Reception ). The sisters of the mentally ill philosopher Ludwig have lived in their parents' house in Vienna for decades. Both of them are moderately successful actresses and are expecting their brother for lunch after he has returned from a hospital stay. In the first act, before lunch, the older sister (Dene) is mainly responsible for preparing the meal and setting the table, while the younger one (Ritter) does nothing, reading the newspaper and smoking cigarettes. The conversations between the sisters reveal profound conflicts associated with their brother. In the second act, at lunch, Paul (Voss) appears for the first time, who speaks dominantly and repeatedly reveals his psychological abnormality. However, unlike most of the clinic's patients, he is not incapacitated and dictates philosophical texts to his older sister during productive phases. The mention of some family members or the doctor Dr. Frege triggers fits of anger and verbal abuse. In doing so, he does not spare his sisters, who hardly resist, but rather try to get their brother's affection.
background
At the end of the text edition of the play, a note by Bernhard from June 1984 is printed:
“ Ritter, Dene, Voss, intelligent actors. During the work, which I completed two years after this note , my thoughts were mainly concentrated on my friend Paul and his uncle Ludwig Wittgenstein . "
The figure of Ludwig Worringer therefore also shows character traits and biographical elements of Ludwig and Paul Wittgenstein . The study stay in Cambridge and visits to a log cabin in Norway are borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein's biography, while the months-long episodes as a patient in the psychiatric clinic "Am Steinhof", the Lower Austrian state sanatorium and nursing home for the mentally and mentally ill, ironically referred to as summer freshness, were experienced by his nephew Paul.
Ilse Ritter explained in an interview that Bernhard chose her as the eponymous actress who took part in the premiere of his play, without asking for consent. Nevertheless, Ritter immediately agreed and played Ludwig's younger sister in numerous performances, for example for ten years at the Burgtheater.
reception
Ritter, Dene, Voss was a great success with both the critics and the audience and saw numerous performances as well as a production by Peymann in 2004 with the original cast. At the Deutsches Theater in Berlin , the piece was directed by Oliver Reese restaged in the cast Constanze Becker (younger sister), Almut Zilcher (older sister) and Ulrich Matthes (Ludwig). However, this premiere received mixed reviews, with the performance of the actors receiving overwhelming praise.
Web links
- [1] - Theater reviews Berlin - In the prison of the past - Critique and table of contents
Remarks
- ↑ "Freund Paul" is about Paul Wittgenstein , whom Bernhard paid tribute to in the story of Wittgenstein's nephew .
- ↑ Background of the piece at thomasbernhard.at , accessed on July 26, 2020
- ↑ Interview with Ilse Ritter in Standard from February 9, 2019, accessed on July 26, 2020
- ↑ Summary of reviews and performance history at spiegel.de from October 25, 2008, accessed on July 26, 2020
- ↑ Review round-up at nachtkritik.de beginning of November 2008, accessed on July 26, 2020