TD Berlin: DER UNTERGEHER - based on the novel by Thomas Bernhard

The stage version of the well-known Thomas Bernhard novel of the same name is a gloomy and at the same time bitterly comic monologue about the question of what makes an existence succeed or fail.

Two young pianists meet the inimitable virtuoso Glenn Gould in their youth. You are totally discouraged by his play. The confrontation with one's own limits becomes a life snag from which they do not recover. One of them finally hangs himself 30 years later. Actor and director Christian Fries brings the stream of thoughts of the other, shortly before the funeral, to life for us: The audience is drawn into thinking and philosophizing about life, about family entanglements and life dreams, about illusions, friendship, loneliness and aging.

The performance, which lasts almost two hours, places the text at the centre, almost completely dispensing with scenic play. The gloom of the text finds its corrective, as always with Bernhard, through a bottomless, evil comedy, as well as through the great rhythm of his language.

A masterstroke. Intensive theatre focused on the language.
(Gießener Anzeiger)

An actor's cabinet piece - where Fries' art is to make the "play" immediately forgotten.
(Westfälische Allgemeine)

02 March 2019 - 20:00
03 March 2019 - 18:00