Bernhard-trilogie

Slaughter the sacred cows

In 1993 Jolente De Keersmaeker and Damiaan De Schrijver, together with Julien Schoenaerts, created Gewoon Ingewikkeld, based on Einfach Kompliziert by Thomas Bernhard. It was inevitable that Bernhard would continue to be one of STAN’s fellow travellers. Now the theatre company presents three Bernhard adaptations as a trilogy: a true Bernhard marathon that is around six hours long.

Why have they chosen to perform this Bernhard trilogy in 2017? Because Bernhard is the executioner, the ultimate master of overstatement and the virtuoso of reversal. Because he bends and breaks language, sprinkles salt on slugs, pokes his finger into wounds, slaughters sacred cows, and heeds neither God nor rules. Neither does he spare himself.
 

PART 1 | Alles is rustig

The protagonist Moritz Meister – played by Damiaan De Schrijver – is a renowned writer who has just completed his masterpiece. Together with his wife (Sara De Roo) he lives a secluded life in an idyllic house in the foothills of the German Alps. The only thing Meister is now waiting for to make his life complete is the Nobel Prize. In the meantime, he receives several visits from the spectacled PhD student Miss Werdenfels (Jolente De Keersmaeker). Everyone admires Meister, but above all, he admires himself. Bernard laments the idleness, self-satisfaction and decadence of the intellectuals who watch from the sidelines – and their invariably hollow reflections.
 

PART 2 | “”Redde wie zich redden kan” geen slechte titel”

As a follow up to Alles is rustig, the STAN actors had originally chosen Am Ziel (1981), but in the end they took just a single sentence from it. This became the title of the performance: ""Redde wie zich redden kan" geen slechte titel". Under this banner, they perform a number of Bernhard’s Dramoletten. In these ‘mini dramas’, even more explicitly than in Alles is Rustig, Bernhard mercilessly dissects Germany’s complex, unprocessed Nazi past and the dormant fascism in society.
 

PART 3 | Eind goed al goed

In Eind goed al goed, a widow and her daughter invite the talented playwright from “Redde wie zich redde kan” to the seaside after the premiere of his play.