This is not so much a play as a poetically polemical piece for theatre. It is called Self-Accusation by Peter Handke. I have read some other work of Mr. Handke. He is very experimental and German and language obsessed. His pieces often involve careful use of words. I wonder how they work in their original language.
It has a special kind of performance designation called Sprechstuck. It is designed to be spoken by one man and one woman. There are no characters. Each performer stands at a microphone and speaks either alone or in unison, quietly or loudly. The entire text is to be spoken. As there is no set delineation as to who speaks what lines, so each production will be different. Thus, there is freedom in interpreting the gender associations of the text.
The text is roughly ten pages. It is comprised of several loosely related paragraphs each filled with statements. Some are contradictory. Examples are things like: I came into the world. I became. I was begotten. I originated. I grew. Those are in the first group. Then later there are things like: I played. I misplayed. I played according to rules which, according to existing rules, were against convention.
There is a rough development in the text which begins with the imagined thoughts of and infant and develop greater complexity and meaning as the piece moves forward. Given that the performance space is meant to be bare and without ornamentation, I wonder if the performers could just read the text after deciding to how to best assign the lines to each other.
I like this piece. It requires some thought and effort to get meaning from it. It is also extremely flexible in meaning and yet at the same time fairly fixed. It is a complex piece in its intention and yet simple in it’s execution. I think I would like to try to produce it.
It has a special kind of performance designation called Sprechstuck. It is designed to be spoken by one man and one woman. There are no characters. Each performer stands at a microphone and speaks either alone or in unison, quietly or loudly. The entire text is to be spoken. As there is no set delineation as to who speaks what lines, so each production will be different. Thus, there is freedom in interpreting the gender associations of the text.
The text is roughly ten pages. It is comprised of several loosely related paragraphs each filled with statements. Some are contradictory. Examples are things like: I came into the world. I became. I was begotten. I originated. I grew. Those are in the first group. Then later there are things like: I played. I misplayed. I played according to rules which, according to existing rules, were against convention.
There is a rough development in the text which begins with the imagined thoughts of and infant and develop greater complexity and meaning as the piece moves forward. Given that the performance space is meant to be bare and without ornamentation, I wonder if the performers could just read the text after deciding to how to best assign the lines to each other.
I like this piece. It requires some thought and effort to get meaning from it. It is also extremely flexible in meaning and yet at the same time fairly fixed. It is a complex piece in its intention and yet simple in it’s execution. I think I would like to try to produce it.
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