Modern Drama

TheatertheaterlTheaterspiele: The Plays of Thomas Bernhard NICHOLAS EISNER Because of the concentration on illness, madness and death in his work as a whole, Thomas Bernhard and his work have until recently often been classified - and dismissed - as nihilistic, without further thought being given to the matter. As can be seen from a reading ofany of Bernhard's texts, whether prose or drama, nihilistic is a suitable, but nevertheless incomplete, classification of this product. It is incomplete because the ease with which the nihilism is perceived leads one to suspect that it is perhaps a fa~ade covering something else and that Bernhard might well be a poseur, "a literary figure excelling in brilliant but destructive artistry using nihilism as an expedient" rather than a "true nihilist who bases his beliefs on valid data about the world surrounding him," as A.P. Dierick has suggested. I And, from a similar perspective, Martin Esslin has observed that, as far as Bernhard's plays are concerned, although the themes are the same as those of his prose works, there is an atmosphere of ambivalence about them. This, combined with certain changes in style resulting from the move from prose to drama, produces what Esslin calls "a strangely disturbing effect"2 and leads one to question the grimness and nihilism which otherwise dominate. This is especially so when one considers the complexities and ironies of Bernhard's work, which are more fully developed and thus more easily perceived in his plays than in his prose works. However, it seems to me that although Esslin pinpoints an essential element of Bernhard's plays he does little more than observe that the audience willingly subjects itselfto a stream ofridicule from Bernhard. This would make Bernhard simply an aggressive and cynical writer. In performance, however, his plays have a sly, humorous air about them which belies this conclusion. Such observations raise questions regarding the contrast between the nihilism and the irony in these plays. And upon examination of this contrast we encounter an interesting and, to my knowledge, as yet overlooked feature of Bernhard's plays. It seems to me that the ambivalence and disturbing effect ofthese plays is The Plays of Thomas Bernhard 105 not only carefully engineered to place the audience in an unusual situation, but that Bernhard has also developed a form of theatre which is in keeping with trends in (post-modem) writing in recent years which I shall examine more closely later. The main point to note about the nihilism of Bernhard's plays - as of his prose - is that it is derived essentially from a highly repetitive style oflanguage, which does not allow the development ofplot, character and genuine dialogue. In addition to this linguistic device are the dramatic ones of portraying grotesque situations and of using visibly oppressive settings. The continued concentration on these elements and the fact that Bernhard has consistently used the same style for all of his published work has led Esslin to suggest that Bernhard is indulging in a form of mannerism. He defines mannerism as the predominance of technique over content, in which "how" becomes more important than "what.,,3 This predominance of form or technique over content definitely seems to be the case with Bernhard. As far as drama is concerned, this means that it is no longer simply a literary genre, but in its very form is a physical presentation of an idea ("eine dargestellte Idee") - or in other words, the form is the idea.4 Consequently, Bernhard's figures are merely "verkorperte Funktionen," (personified functions) used to illustrate the concept which generates them. What they are and what they say is entirely subordinated to a concept which extends beyond each individual play and which governs Bernhard's dramatic production as a whole. As such they are instruments in a performance and exposition ofan idea or technique - a metaphor which is given concrete form in the figures and instruments of the play Die Macht der Gewohnheit (The Force ofHabit).5 Once it is accepted that the structure is more important than the content we can see that the nihilism ofBernhard's work - at least on the level of the expression of a personal...