Rodzeństwo

Thomas Bernhard's "Rodzeństwo" (Siblings) is a work about love - extraordinarily difficult, trapping its characters in the painful grip of regret, a sense of injury, at times anger and hatred. Despite their suffering, Bernhard's protagonists cling to each other, want to stay together, to form a family. It is easy to fall under the impression that they derive a kind of perverse pleasure from the fact that, out of selfish motives, they torment each other, force sacrifices, deliberately wound. There is also a considerable dose of masochistic delight in how they regard each other as victims of the remaining relatives.

Yet it is worth looking at the relationship of these three people differently - as an act of extraordinary sacrifice and desperate desire to sustain a bond that, though destructive, also builds something. It is no accident that Bernhard's characters, modeled on Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and his sisters, remain together nonetheless, despite everything. To torment each other, mutually insult, humiliate - but also to love. Terribly, in every sense of the word.

Premiere: April 27, 2024, Chamber Stage. Duration: 3 hours (two intermissions). Cigarettes are smoked during the performance.