Am Ziel

Lisztstr.1

1030 Wien

 

On an early, seemingly peaceful morning, a mother complains mercilessly about yesterday's evening at the theater, the premiere of a young playwright entitled RETTE SICH, WER KANN. The daughter is silent, makes tea and packs because they are about to leave the city villa and go to the summer residence by the sea. Before leaving, the mother not only discusses the terminally ill state of the theater and the world, but also about the craftsman's bill being too high, the family's cast work being sold below value, and the two ghosts, who are still an absent presence, expressing their anger and shame fuel: her deceased husband and her small, severely disabled son, who will never grow up. She furiously celebrates her greed for meaning and fulfillment, and not least her love of playing, because she has invited a guest to the summer residence for the first time: the young playwright from last night.

Thomas Bernhard's piece premiered in Salzburg in 1981 and oscillates between humor and madness. Inspired by cognac, ingenuity, masochism and fear of the world, the mother drives herself and those around her into a dizzying, speech-drunk nosedive.

 

(Source: burgtheater.at)