What do you think?
Rate this book
Histrionics: Three Plays
Although he is best known in the United States as a novelist, Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard has been hailed in Europe as one of the most significant and controversial of contemporary playwrights. George Steiner has predicted that the current era in German-language literature will be recognized as the "Bernhard period"; John Updike compares Bernhard with Kafka, Grass, Handke, and Weiss. His dark, absurdist plays can be likened to those of Beckett and Pinter, but their cultural and political concerns are distinctly Bernhard's. While Austria's recent political history lends particular credibility to Bernhard's satire, his criticisms are directed at the modern world generally; his plays grapple with questions of totalitarianism and the subjection of the individual and with notions of reality and appearance.
282 pages, Hardcover
First published January 29, 1990
2 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Bernhard
288 books2,455 followersThomas Bernhard was an Austrian writer who ranks among the most distinguished German-speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century.
Although internationally he’s most acclaimed because of his novels, he was also a prolific playwright. His characters are often at work on a lifetime and never-ending major project while they deal with themes such as suicide, madness and obsession, and, as Bernhard did, a love-hate relationship with Austria. His prose is tumultuous but sober at the same time, philosophic by turns, with a musical cadence and plenty of black humor.
He started publishing in the year 1963 with the novel Frost. His last published work, appearing in the year 1986, was Extinction. Some of his best-known works include The Loser (about a student’s fictionalized relationship with the pianist Glenn Gould), Wittgenstein’s Nephew, and Woodcutters.
Although internationally he’s most acclaimed because of his novels, he was also a prolific playwright. His characters are often at work on a lifetime and never-ending major project while they deal with themes such as suicide, madness and obsession, and, as Bernhard did, a love-hate relationship with Austria. His prose is tumultuous but sober at the same time, philosophic by turns, with a musical cadence and plenty of black humor.
He started publishing in the year 1963 with the novel Frost. His last published work, appearing in the year 1986, was Extinction. Some of his best-known works include The Loser (about a student’s fictionalized relationship with the pianist Glenn Gould), Wittgenstein’s Nephew, and Woodcutters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 24, 2020
"I was afraid that it would hurt me when you took my costume off for me
It did hurt me"
Bernhard was widely acclaimed and excoriated for his theatrical works, much more than his prose, thus they are essential to appreciating him as an author. I wouldn't though necessarily recommend them to fans of his novels and shorter fiction. For me, personally, I tend to avoid reading plays for the obvious reason: they're meant to be seen and heard. Bernhard's plays though, read like his novels, vast, monolithic monologues replete with nerve-wracking repetition and an inherent tension that few writers capture. So for that reason, these are more engaging to read than other works of drama. On the other hand, Bernhard's peculiar Theater machen, ("making a play" but also, "throwing a hissy fit") probably works much better actually seeing it in the flesh, since there's a lot of entertaining meta-shit going on.
Anyway, the plays are excellent. Running themes of the execration of philosophy (and the theater!) permeate these three plays, as well as some rather ballsy, if needed, expunging of Austria's Nazi past. For the Bernhard completist.
It did hurt me"
Bernhard was widely acclaimed and excoriated for his theatrical works, much more than his prose, thus they are essential to appreciating him as an author. I wouldn't though necessarily recommend them to fans of his novels and shorter fiction. For me, personally, I tend to avoid reading plays for the obvious reason: they're meant to be seen and heard. Bernhard's plays though, read like his novels, vast, monolithic monologues replete with nerve-wracking repetition and an inherent tension that few writers capture. So for that reason, these are more engaging to read than other works of drama. On the other hand, Bernhard's peculiar Theater machen, ("making a play" but also, "throwing a hissy fit") probably works much better actually seeing it in the flesh, since there's a lot of entertaining meta-shit going on.
Anyway, the plays are excellent. Running themes of the execration of philosophy (and the theater!) permeate these three plays, as well as some rather ballsy, if needed, expunging of Austria's Nazi past. For the Bernhard completist.
September 16, 2019
Brilliantly influential.
November 17, 2024
He's 3 for 3 here, I must admit. Each play within is composed of perfectly unhinged monologues that just happen to have one or two poor sorry souls as witness. Reading a play is of course an exercise in failure but it is also a singular medium, one in which the thought matter while reading is not so much a cloud of images, memories, and sensations. Rather, it is a mental approximation of what might occur if what was on the page were to be put on stage, in the bodies and mouths of actors, not actual people. I don't have the best imagination, I don't know how well I can rotate an apple in my head, but you don't need a great imagination when you have catalysts like these. The formatting of the lines coupled with the lengthy, cyclical, brink-of-madness monologues creates this lurching, unceasing rhythm that continually sounds your mind/ears like a bell.
The content, the words, the subjects are perfectly matched to the form. On display here are terrible megalomaniacs of differing hues and backgrounds. All of them wish to connect with others, all of them wish to speak until their breath gives out, yet at the same time all of them despise basically the entire human race, culture, and even their own living. It's like watching someone walk a tightrope between skyscrapers, but they're walking exactly as they would as if they were walking to their own kitchen. And yet, they don't fall, they don't even seem to be aware of the fact that they're hundreds of feet above the ground. Instead, they're muttering something about how the service was terrible at the restaurant where they had eaten lunch or they're yelling at somebody standing on the roof of 0ne of the buildings, demanding that they have clothes and refreshments ready so help me god or else I'm going to pace around until I see that everything is the way I like it!
I'm going to watch some videos of performances because I want to hear this twisted suicidal pride actually inhabited, regardless of how mendacious it is, no matter if I can understand the words being said. This is a really good collection and makes me want to write a play, though I know whatever I write will be an imitation of one or all of these works. Regardless, they do present a good argument for letting seemingly banal and hopeless ideas/lives play out until they enter a silly trance that actually feels relieving to experience. But these plays are not positive or amusing, they're arduous and cruel. From second to second they crawl, writhe, and lash out, but once they're over and done with for good, the whole does not resemble any of its parts. It's quite different from the one novel of his that I have read, despite having very similar ingredients. The non-main characters are very interesting in their relative silence and submission...
The content, the words, the subjects are perfectly matched to the form. On display here are terrible megalomaniacs of differing hues and backgrounds. All of them wish to connect with others, all of them wish to speak until their breath gives out, yet at the same time all of them despise basically the entire human race, culture, and even their own living. It's like watching someone walk a tightrope between skyscrapers, but they're walking exactly as they would as if they were walking to their own kitchen. And yet, they don't fall, they don't even seem to be aware of the fact that they're hundreds of feet above the ground. Instead, they're muttering something about how the service was terrible at the restaurant where they had eaten lunch or they're yelling at somebody standing on the roof of 0ne of the buildings, demanding that they have clothes and refreshments ready so help me god or else I'm going to pace around until I see that everything is the way I like it!
I'm going to watch some videos of performances because I want to hear this twisted suicidal pride actually inhabited, regardless of how mendacious it is, no matter if I can understand the words being said. This is a really good collection and makes me want to write a play, though I know whatever I write will be an imitation of one or all of these works. Regardless, they do present a good argument for letting seemingly banal and hopeless ideas/lives play out until they enter a silly trance that actually feels relieving to experience. But these plays are not positive or amusing, they're arduous and cruel. From second to second they crawl, writhe, and lash out, but once they're over and done with for good, the whole does not resemble any of its parts. It's quite different from the one novel of his that I have read, despite having very similar ingredients. The non-main characters are very interesting in their relative silence and submission...
November 22, 2019
Bernhard's plays are provocations. His doppelganger narrator from the novels has been replaced not by another Bernhard but by his id. When "Histrionics" was first performance there was large pile of shit center stage representing Austria. This guy loves to go on the attack and he enjoys every minute of it. If he doesn't make you laugh you are in for a long ride.
Want to read
June 5, 202092) Üç oyununun yer aldığı Histrionics dışındaki yapıtlarını tutkuyla okudum. 25.03.93’te Village Voice’tan (Paris) aldığım Histrionics’e elim varmıyor. Onu da bitirirsem sanki bunalım geçirecek veya bir şeylerden kopacağım.
June 16, 2020
Nothing here as strong as Bernhard's novels, but very good for the most part.
December 17, 2009
Bernhard's novels are more compelling, but there's plenty to chew on here, too. A Party for Boris and Histrionics were especially interesting. If this plays out as usual a few more days of musing on these pieces might just boost it up to 5 stars.
What a magnificent and challenging writer.
What a magnificent and challenging writer.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews