Thomas Bernhard

Now, this is news, and it just may break my exile from theatregoing next month: the New York premiere of a play by the acerbic, provocative Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989). Toronto’s One Little Goat Theatre Company brings its production of Bernhard’s 1986 play Ritter, Dene, Voss to LaMaMa ETC’s First Floor Theatre, opening 23 September and running through 10 October. Adam Seelig, artistic director of One Little Goat, directs the production (the 2006 Toronto opening of which constituted the English-language premiere). From the press release:

In Ritter, Dene, Voss (named for the three actors who premiered the original 1986 production in German), Thomas Bernhard explores sexual repression and sibling rivalry with characteristic tenacity and wit. The play involves two sisters — both actresses — and their attempts at reintegrating their volatile brother into their home. The brother, a tormented genius (loosely based on last century’s great, idiosyncratic philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein), has just returned from a mental health institute, complicating the dynamics between the three siblings.

After premiering at the Salzburg Festival in 1986, the original production then moved to Vienna’s Burgtheater (which you can see at the upper right of this page), where it was revived every two years over the next decade.

Ritter, Dene, Voss can be found in the collection of Bernhard plays entitled Histrionics, which appears to be out-of-print. However, this is a good time to mention that several volumes of Bernhard’s other work  — as well as Heldenplatz, his final and perhaps most controversial play — are now appearing in English for the first time; Rhys Tranter has a rundown of these titles here.

For a sample, see the trailer for the One Little Goat production of Ritter, Dene, Voss here:

And, as an added treat, an excerpt from the original German-language production: