OFFENDING
THE AUDIENCE
By Peter Handke
NOTE ON Offending the
Audience
AND Self-Accusation
The speak-ins
(Sprechstucke) are spectacles without pictures, in as much as they
give no picture of the world. They point to the world not by way of
pictures but by way of words; the words of the speak-ins don’t
point at the world as something lying outside the words but to the
world in the words themselves. The words that make up the speak-ins
give no picture of the world but a concept of it. The speak-ins are
theatrical inasmuch as they employ natural forms of expression found
in reality. They employ only such expressions as are natural in real
speech; that is, they employ the speech forms that are uttered orally
in real life. The speak-ins employ natural examples of swearing, of
self-indictment, of confession, of testimony, of in interrogation, of
justification, of evasion, of prophecy, of calls for help. Therefore
they need a vis-à-vis, at least one person who listens; other wise,
they would not be natural but extorted by the author. It is to that
extent that my speak-ins are pieces for the theater. Ironically, they
imitate the gestures of all the given devices natural to the theater.
The speak-ins have no
action, since every action on stage would only be the picture of
another action. The speak-ins confine them selves, by obeying their
natural form, to words. They give no pictures, not even pictures in
word form, which would only be pictures the author extorted to
represent an internal, unexpressed, wordless circumstance and not a
natural expression.
Speak-ins are autonomous
prologues to the old plays. They do not want to revolutionize, but to
make aware.
Peter Handke
CAST: FOUR SPEAKERS
Rules for the actors
· Listen to the
litanies in the Catholic churches.
· Listen to
football teams being cheered on and booed.
· Listen to the
rhythmic chanting at demonstrations.
· Listen to the
wheels of a bicycle upturned on its seat spinning until the spokes
have come to rest and watch the spokes until they have reached their
resting point.
· Listen to the
gradually increasing noise a concrete mixer makes after the motor has
been started.
· Listen to
debaters cutting each other off.
· Listen to “Tell
Me” by the Rolling Stones.
· Listen to the
simultaneous arrival and departure of trains.
· Listen to the
hit parade on Radio Luxembourg.
· Listen in on the
simultaneous interpreters at the United Nations.
· Listen to the
dialogue between the gangster (Lee J. Cobb) and the pretty girl in
“The Trap,” when the girl asks the gangster how many more people
he intends to kill; whereupon the gangster asks, as he leans back,
flow many are left? and watch the gangster as he says it.
· See the Beatles’
movies.
· In “A Hard
Day’s Night” watch Ringo’s smile at the moment when, after
having been teased by the others, he sits down at his drums and
begins to play.
· Watch Gary
Cooper’s face in “The Man From the West.” In the same movie
watch the death of the mute as he runs down the deserted street of
the lifeless town with a bullet in him, hopping and jumping and
emitting those shrill screams.
· Watch monkeys
aping people and llamas spitting in the zoo.
· Watch the
behavior of bums and idlers as they amble on the street and play the
machines in the penny arcades.
When the theatergoers
enter the room into which they are meant to go, they are greeted by
the usual pre-performance atmosphere. One might let them hear noises
from behind the curtain, noises that make believe that scenery is
being shifted about. For example, a table is dragged across the
stage, or several chairs are noisily set up and then removed. One
might let the spectators in the first few rows hear directions
whispered by make-believe stage managers and the whispered
interchanges between make-believe stagehands behind the curtain. Or,
even better, use tape recordings of other performances in which,
before the curtain rises, objects are really shifted about. These
noises should be amplified to make them more audible, and perhaps
should be stylized and arranged so as to produce their own order and
uniformity.
The usual theater
atmosphere should prevail. The ushers should be more assiduous than
usual, even more formal and ceremonious, should subdue their usual
whispering with even more style, so that their behavior becomes
infectious. The programs should be elegant. The buzzer signals should
not be forgotten; the signals are repeated at successively briefer
intervals. The gradual dimming of the lights should be even more
gradual if possible; perhaps the lights can be dimmed in successive
stages. As the ushers proceed to close the doors, their gestures
should become particularly solemn and noticeable. Yet, they are only
ushers. Their actions should not appear symbolic. Late-corners should
not be admitted. Inappropriately dressed ticket holders should not be
admitted. The concept of what is sartorially inappropriate should be
strictly applied. None of the spectators should call attention to
himself or offend the eye by his attire. The men should be dressed in
dark jackets, with white shirts and inconspicuous ties. The women
should shun bright colors.
There is no standing-room.
Once the doors are closed and the lights dim, it gradually becomes
quiet behind the curtain too. The silence behind the curtain and the
silence in the auditorium are alike. The spectators stare a while
longer at the almost imperceptibly fluttering curtain, which may
perhaps billow once or twice as though someone had hurriedly crossed
the stage. Then the curtain grows still. There is a short pause. The
curtain slowly parts, allowing an unobstructed view. Once the stage
is completely open to view, the four speakers step forward from
upstage. Nothing impedes their progress. The stage is empty. As they
walk forward noncommittally, dressed casually, it becomes light on
stage as well as in the audience. The light on stage and in the
auditorium is of the same intensity as at the end of a performance
and there is no glare to hurt the eyes. The stage and the auditorium
remain lighted throughout the performance. Even as they approach, the
speakers don’t look at the audience. They don’t direct the words
they are speaking at the audience. Under no circumstance should the
audience get the impression that the words are directed at them. As
far as the speakers are concerned, the audience does not yet exist.
As they approach, they move their lips. Gradually their words become
intelligible and finally they be come loud. The invectives they
deliver overlap one another. The speakers speak pell-mell. They pick
up each other’s words. They take words out of each other’s
mouths. They speak in unison, each uttering different words. They
repeat. They grow louder. They scream. They pass rehearsed words from
mouth to mouth. Finally, they rehearse one word in unison. The words
they use in this prologue are the following (their order is
immaterial): You chuckle- heads, you small-timers, you nervous
nellies, you fuddy-duddies, you windbags, you sitting ducks, you
milquetoasts. The speakers should strive for a certain acoustic
uniformity. However, except for the acoustic pattern, no other
picture should be produced. The invectives are not directed at anyone
in particular. The manner of their delivery should not induce a
meaning. The speakers reach the front of the stage before they finish
rehearsing their invectives. They stand at ease but form a sort of
pattern. They are not completely fixed in their positions but move
according to the movement which the words they speak lend them. They
now look at the public, but at no one person in particular. They are
silent for a while. They collect themselves. Then they begin to
speak. The order in which they speak is immaterial. The speakers have
roughly the same amount of work to do.
You are welcome.
This piece is a prologue.
You will hear nothing you
have not heard here before.
You will see nothing you
have not seen here before.
You will see nothing of
what you have always seen here.
You will hear nothing of
what you have always heard here.
You will hear what you
usually see.
You will hear what you
usually don’t see.
You will see no spectacle.
Your curiosity will not be
satisfied.
You will see no play.
There will be no playing
here tonight.
You will see a spectacle
without pictures.
You expected something.
You expected something
else perhaps.
You expected objects.
You expected no objects.
You expected an
atmosphere.
You expected a different
world.
You expected no different
world.
In any case, you expected
something.
It may be the case you
expected what you are hearing now.
But even in that case you
expected something different.
You are sitting in rows.
You form a pattern. You are sitting in a certain order. You are
facing in a certain direction. You are sitting
equidistant from one
another. You are an audience. You form a unit. You are auditors and
spectators in an auditorium. Your thoughts are free. You can still
make up your own mind. You see us speaking and you hear us speaking.
You are beginning to breathe in one and the same rhythm. You are
beginning to breathe in one and the same rhythm in which we are
speaking. You are breathing the way we are speaking. We and you
gradually form a unit.
You are not thinking. You
don’t think of anything. You are thinking along. You are not
thinking along. You feel uninhibited. Your thoughts are free. Even as
we say that, we insinuate ourselves into your thoughts. You have
thoughts in the back of your mind. Even as we say that, we insinuate
ourselves into the thoughts in back of your mind. You are thinking
along. You are hearing. Your thoughts are following in the track of
our thoughts. Your thoughts are not following in the track of our
thoughts. You are not thinking. Your thoughts are not free. You feel
inhibited.
You are looking at us when
we speak to you. You are not watching us. You are looking at us. You
are being looked at. You are unprotected. You no longer have the
advantage of looking from the shelter of darkness into the light. We
no longer have the disadvantage of looking through the blinding light
into the dark. You are not watching. You are looking at and you are
being looked at. In this way, we and you gradually form a unit. Under
certain conditions, therefore, we, instead of saying you, could say
we. We are under one and the same roof. We are a closed society.
You are not listening to
us. You heed us. You are no longer eaves dropping from behind a wall.
We are speaking directly to you. Our dialogue no longer moves at a
right angle to your glance. Your glance no longer pierces our
dialogue. Our words and your glances no longer form an angle. You are
not disregarded. You are not treated as mere hecklers. You need not
form an opinion from a bird’s or a frog’s perspective of anything
that happens here. You need not play referee. You are no longer
treated as spectators to whom we can speak in asides. This is no
play. There are no asides here. Nothing that takes place here is
intended as an appeal to you. This is no play. We don’t step out of
the play to address you. We have no need of illusions to disillusion
you. We show you nothing. We are playing no destinies. We are playing
no dreams. This is not a factual report. This is no documentary play.
This is no slice of life. We don’t tell you a story. We don’t
perform any actions. We don’t simulate any actions. We don’t
represent anything. We don’t put anything on for you. We only
speak. We play by addressing you. ‘When we say we, we may also mean
you. We are not acting out your situation. You cannot recognize
yourselves in us. We are playing no situation. You need not feel that
we mean you. You cannot feel that we mean you. No mirror is being
held up to you. We don’t mean you. We are addressing you. You are
being addressed. You will be addressed. You will be bored if you
don’t want to be addressed.
You are sharing no
experience. You are not sharing. You are not following suit. You are
experiencing no intrigues here. You are experiencing nothing. You are
not imagining anything. You don’t have to imagine anything. You
need no prerequisites. You don’t need to know that this is a stage.
You need no expectations. You need not lean back expectantly. You
don’t need to know that this is only playing. We make up no
stories. You are not following an event. You are not playing along.
You are being played with here. That is a wordplay.
What is the theater’s is
not rendered unto the theater here. Here you don’t receive your due
Your curiosity is not satisfied. No spark will leap across from us to
you. You will not be electrified. These boards don’t signify a
world. They are part of the world. These boards exist for j stand on.
This world is no different from yours. You are no longer kibitzers.
You are the subject matter. The focus is on you. You are in the
crossfire of our words.
This is no mirage. You
don’t see walls that tremble. You don’t hear the spurious sounds
of doors snapping shut. You hear no sofas squeaking. You see no
apparitions. You have no visions. You see no picture of something.
Nor do you see the suggestion of a picture. You see no picture
puzzle. Nor do you see an empty picture. The emptiness of this stage
is no picture of another emptiness. The emptiness of this stage
signifies nothing. This stage is empty because objects would be in
our way. It is empty because we don’t need objects. This stage
represents nothing. It represents no other emptiness. This stage is
empty. You don’t see any objects that pretend to be other objects.
You don’t see a darkness that pretends to be another darkness. You
don’t see a brightness that pretends to be another brightness. You
don’t see any light that pretends to be another light. You don’t
hear any noise that pretends to be another noise. You don’t see a
room that pretends to be another room. Here you are not experiencing
a time that pretends to be another time. The time on stage is no
different from the time off stage. We have the same local time here.
We are in the same location. We are breathing the same air. The stage
apron is not a line of demarcation. It is not only sometimes no
demarcation line. It is no demarcation line as long as we are
speaking to you. There is no in visible circle here. There is no
magic circle. There is no room for play here. We are not playing. We
are all in the same room. The demarcation line has not been
penetrated, it is not pervious it doesn’t even exist. There is no
radiation belt between you and us. We are not self-propelled props.
We are no pictures of some thing. We are no representatives. We
represent nothing. We demonstrate nothing. We have no pseudonyms. Our
heartbeat does not pretend to be another’s heartbeat. Our
bloodcurdling screams don’t pretend to be another’s bloodcurdling
screams. We don’t step out of our roles. We have no roles. We are
ourselves. We are the mouthpiece of the author. You cannot make
yourself a picture of us. You don’t need to make yourself a picture
of us. We are ourselves. Our opinion and the author’s opinion are
not necessarily the same.
The light that illuminates
us signifies nothing. Neither do the clothes we wear signify
anything. They indicate nothing, they are not unusual in any way,
they signify nothing. They signify no other time to you, no other
climate, no other season, no other degree of latitude, no other
reason to wear them. They have no function. Nor do our gestures have
a function, that is, to signify something to you. This is not the
world as a stage.
We are no slapstick
artists. There are no objects here that we might trip over. Insidious
objects are not on the program. Insidious objects are not
spoil-sports because we are not sporting with them. The objects are
not intended as insidious sport; they are insidious. If we happen to
trip, we trip unwittingly. Unwitting as well are mistakes in dress;
unwitting, too, are our perhaps foolish faces. Slips of the tongue,
which amuse you, are not intended. If we stutter, we stutter without
meaning to. We cannot make dropping a hand kerchief part of the play.
We are not playing. We cannot make the insidiousness of objects part
of the play. We cannot camouflage the insidiousness of objects. We
cannot be of two minds. We cannot be of many minds. We are no
clowns. We are not in an arena. You don’t have the pleasure of
encircling us. You are not enjoying the comedy of having a rear view
of us. You are not enjoying the comedy of insidious objects. You are
enjoying the comedy of words.
The possibilities of the
theater are not exploited here. The realm of possibilities is not
exhausted. The theater is not unbounded. The theater is bound. Fate
is meant ironically here. We are not theatrical. Our comedy is not
overwhelming. Your laughter cannot be liberating. We are not playful.
We are not playing a world for you. This is not half of one world. We
and you do not constitute two halves.
You are the subject
matter. You are the center of interest. No actions are performed
here, you are being acted upon. That is no wordplay. You are not
treated as individuals here. You don’t be- come individuals here.
You have no individual traits. You have no distinctive physiognomies.
You are not individuals here. You have no characteristics. You have
no destiny. You have no history. You have no past. You are on no
wanted list. You have no experience of life. You have the experience
of the theater here. You have that certain something. You are
playgoers. You are of no interest because of your capacities. You are
of interest solely in your capacity as play goers. As playgoers you
form a pattern here. You are no personalities. You are not singular.
You are a plurality of persons. Your faces point in one direction.
You are an event. You are the event.
You are under review by
us. But you form no picture. You are not symbolic. You are an
ornament. You are a pattern. You have features that everyone here
has. You have general features. You are a species. You form a
pattern. You are doing and you are not doing the same thing: you are
looking in one direction. You don’t stand up and look in different
directions. You are a standard pattern and you have a pattern as a
standard. You have a standard with which you came to the theater. You
have the standard idea that where we are is up and where you are is
down. You have the standard idea of two worlds. You have the standard
idea of the world of the theater.
You don’t need this
standard now. You are not attending a piece for the theater. You are
not attending. You are the focal point. You are in the crossfire. You
are being inflamed. You can catch fire. You don’t need a standard.
You are the standard. You have been discovered. You are the discovery
of the evening. You inflame us. Our words catch fire on you. From you
a spark leaps across to us.
This room does not make
believe it is a room. The side that is open to you is not the fourth
wall of a house. The world does not have to be cut open here. You
don’t see any doors here. You don’t see the two doors of the old
dramas. You don’t see the back door through which he who shouldn’t
be seen can slip out. You don’t see the front door through which he
who wants to see him who shouldn’t be seen enters. There is no back
door. Neither is there a nonexistent door as in modern drama. The
nonexistent door does not represent a nonexistent door. This is not
another world. We are not pretending that you don’t exist. You are
not thin air for us. You are of crucial importance to us because you
exist. We are speaking to you because you exist. If you did not
exist, we would be speaking to thin air. Your existence is not simply
taken for granted. You don’t watch us through a keyhole. We don’t
pretend that we are alone in the world. We don’t explain ourselves
to ourselves only in order to put you in the know. We are not
conducting an exhibition purely for the benefit of your
enlightenment. We need no artifice to enlighten you. We need no
tricks. We don’t have to be theatrically effective. We have no
entrances, we have no exits, we don’t talk to you in asides. We are
putting nothing over on you. We are not about to enter into a
dialogue. We are not in a dialogue. Nor are we in a dialogue with
you. We have no wish to eater into a dialogue with you. You are not
in collusion with us. You are not eyewitnesses to an event. We are
not taunting you. You don’t have to be apathetic any more. You
don’t have to watch inactively any more. No actions take place
here. You feel the discomfort of being watched and addressed, since
you came prepared to watch and make yourselves comfortable in the
shelter of the dark. Your presence is every moment explicitly
acknowledged with every one of our words. Your presence is the topic
we deal with from one breath to the next, from moment to the next,
from one word to the next. Your standard idea of the theater is no
longer presupposed as the basis of our actions. You are neither
condemned to watch nor free to watch. You are the subject. You are
the playmakers. You are the counterplotters. You are being aimed at.
You are the target of our words. You serve as targets. That is a
metaphor. You serve as the target of our metaphors. You serve as
metaphors.
Of the two poles here, you
are the pole at rest. You are in an arrested state. You find yourself
in a state of expectation. You are no subjects. You are objects here.
You are the objects of our words. Still, you are subjects too.
There are no intervals
here. The intervals between words lack significance. Here the
unspoken word lacks significance. There are no unspoken words here.
Our silences say nothing. There is no deafening silence. There is no
silent silence. There is no deathly quiet. Speech is not used to
create silence here. This play includes no direction telling us to be
silent. We make no artificial pauses. Our pauses are natural pauses.
Our pauses are not eloquent like speech. We say nothing with our
silence. No abyss opens up between words. You cannot read anything
between our lines. You cannot read
anything in our faces. Our
gestures express nothing of consequence to anything. What is
inexpressible is not said through silences here. Glances and gestures
are not eloquent here. Becoming silent and being silent is no
artifice here. There are no silent letters here. There’s only the
mute h. That is a pun.
You have made up your mind
now. You recognized that we negate something. You recognized that we
repeat ourselves. You recognized that we contradict ourselves. You
recognized that this piece is conducting an argument with the
theater. You recognized the dialectical structure of the piece. You
recognized a certain spirit of contrariness. The intention of the
piece became clear to you. You recognized that we primarily negate.
You recognized that we repeat ourselves. You recognize. You see
through. You have not made up your mind. You have not seen through
the dialectical structure of the piece. Now you are seeing through.
Your thoughts were one thought too slow. Now you have thoughts in the
back of your mind.
You look charming. You
look enchanting. You look dazzling. You look breathtaking. You look
unique.
But you don’t make an
evening. You’re not a brilliant idea. You are tiresome. You are not
a thankful subject. You are a theatrical blunder. You are not true to
life. You are not theatrically effective. You don’t send us. You
don’t enchant us. You don’t dazzle us. You don’t entertain us
fabulously. You are not playful. You are not sprightly. You have no
tricks up your sleeve. You have no nose for the theater. You have
nothing to say. Your debut is unconvincing. You are not with it. You
don’t help us pass the time. You are not addressing the human
quality in us. You leave us cold.
This is no drama. No
action that has occurred elsewhere is re enacted here. Only a now and
a now and a now exist here. This is no make-believe which re-enacts
an action that really happened once upon a time. Time plays no role
here. We are not acting out a plot. Therefore we are not playing
time. Time is for real here, it expires from one word to the next.
Time flies in the words here. It is not alleged that time can be
repeated here. No play can be repeated here and play at the same time
it did once upon a time. The time here is your time. Space time here
is your space time. Here you can compare your time with our time.
Time is no noose. That is no make-believe. It is not alleged here
that time can be repeated. The umbilical cord connecting you to your
time is not severed here. Time is not at play here. We mean business
with time here. It is admitted here that time expires from one word
to the next. It is admitted that this is your time here. You can
check the time here on your watches. No other time governs here. The
time that governs here is measured against your breath. Time conforms
to your wishes here. We measure time by your breath, by the batting
of your eyelashes, by your pulsebeats, by the growth of your cells.
Time expires here from moment to moment. Time is measured in moments.
Time is measured in your moments. Time goes through your stomach.
Time here is not repeatable as in the make-believe of a theater
performance. This is no performance: you have not to imagine
anything. Time is no noose here. Time is not cut off from the outside
world here. There are no two levels of time here. There are no two
worlds here. While we are here, the earth continues to turn. Our time
up here is your time down there. It expires from one word to the
next. It expires while we, we and you, are breathing, while our hair
is growing, while we are sweating, while we are smelling, while we
are hearing. Time is not repeatable even if we repeat our words, even
if we mention again that our time is your time, that it expires from
one word to the next, while we, we and you, are breathing, while our
hair is growing, while we sweat, while we smell, while we hear. We
cannot repeat anything, time is expiring. It is unrepeatable. Each
moment is historical. Each of your moments is a historical moment. We
cannot say our words twice. This is no make-believe. We cannot do the
same thing once again. We cannot repeat the same gestures. We cannot
speak the same way. Time expires on our lips. Time is unrepeatable.
Time is no noose. That is no make-believe. The past is not made
contemporaneous. The past is dead and buried. We need no puppet to
embody a dead time. This is no puppet show. This is no nonsense. This
is no play. This is no sense. You recognize the contradiction. Time
here serves the wordplay.
This is no maneuver. This
is no exercise for the emergency. No one has to play dead here. No
one has to pretend he is alive. Nothing is posited here. The number
of wounded is not prescribed. The result is not predetermined on
paper. There is no result here. No one has to present himself here.
We don’t represent except what we are. We don’t represent
ourselves in a state other than the one we are in now and here. This
is no maneuver. We are not playing ourselves in different situations.
We are not thinking of the emergency. We don’t have to represent
our death. We don’t have
represent our life. We
don’t play ahead of time what and how we will be. We make no future
contemporaneous in our play. We don’t represent another time. We
don’t represent the emergency. We are speaking while time expires.
We speak of the expiration of time. We are not doing as if. We are
not doing as if we could repeat time or as if we could anticipate
time. This is neither make-believe nor a maneuver. On the one hand we
do as if. We do as if we could repeat words. We appear to repeat
ourselves. Here is the world of appearances. Here appearance is
appearance. Appearance is here appearance.
You represent something.
You are someone. You are something. You are not someone here but
something. You are a society that represents an order. You are a
theater society of sorts. You are an order because of your kind of
dress, the position of your bodies, the direction of your glances.
The color of your clothes clashes with the color of your seating
arrangement. You also form an order with the seating arrangement. You
are dressed up. With your dress you observe an order. You dress up.
By dressing up, you demonstrate that you are doing something that you
don’t do every day. You are putting on a masquerade so as to
partake of a masquerade. You partake. You watch. You stare. By
watching, you become rigid. The seating arrangement favors this
development. You are something that watches. You need room for your
eyes. If the curtain comes together, you gradually become
claustrophobic. You have no vantage point. You feel encircled. You
feel inhibited. The parting of the curtain merely relieves your
claustrophobia. Thus it relieves you. You can watch. Your view is
unobstructed. You become uninhibited. You can par take. You are not
in dead center as when the curtain is closed. You are no longer
someone. You become something. You are no longer alone with
yourselves. You are no longer left to your own devices. Now you are
with it. You are an audience. That is a relief. You can partake.
Up here there is no order
now. There are no objects that demonstrate an order to you. The world
here is neither sound nor unsound. This is no world. Stage props are
out of place here. Their places are not chalked out on the stage.
Since they are not chalked out, there is no order here. There are no
chalk marks for the standpoint of things. There are no memory props
for the standpoint of per sons. In contrast to you and your seating
arrangement, nothing is in its place here. Things here have no fixed
places like the places of your seating arrangements down there. This
stage is no world, just as the world is no stage.
Nor does each thing have
its own time here. No thing has its own time here. No thing has its
fixed time here when it serves as a prop or when it becomes an
obstacle. We don’t do as if things were really used. Here things
are useful.
You are not standing. You
are using the seating arrangements. You are sitting. Since your
seating arrangements form a pattern, you form a pattern as well.
There is no standing-room. People enjoy art more effectively when
they sit than if they stand. That is why you are sitting. You are
friendlier when you sit. You are more receptive. You are more
open-minded. You are more long-suffering. Sitting, you are more
relaxed. You are more democratic. You are less bored. Time seems less
long and boring to you. You allow more to happen with yourself. You
are more clairvoyant. You are less distracted. It is easier for you
to forget your surroundings. The world around you disappears more
easily. You begin to resemble one another more. You begin to lose
your personal qualities. You begin to lose the characteristics that
distinguish you from each other. You become a unit. You become a
pattern. You become one. You lose your self-consciousness. You become
spectators. You become auditors. You become apathetic. You become all
eyes and ears. You forget to look at your watch. You forget yourself.
Standing, you would be
more effective hecklers. In view of the anatomy of the human body,
your heckling would be louder if you stood. You would be better able
to clench your fists. You could show your opposition better. You
would have greater mobility. You would not need to be as
well-behaved. You could shift your weight from one foot to the other.
You could more easily become conscious of your body. Your enjoyment
of art would be diminished. You would no longer form a pattern. You
would no longer be rigid. You would lose your geometry. You would be
better able to smell the sweat of the bodies near you. You would be
better able to express agreement by nudging each other. If you stood,
the sluggishness of your bodies would not keep you from walking.
Standing, you would be more individual. You would oppose the theater
more resolutely. You would give in to fewer illusions. You would
suffer more from absentmindedness. You would stand more on the
outside. You would be better able to leave yourself to your own
devices. You would be less able to imagine represented events as
real. The events here would seem less true to life to you. Standing,
for example, you would be less able to imagine a death represented on
this stage as real. You would be less rigid. You wouldn’t let
yourself be put under as much of a spell. You wouldn’t let as much
be put over on you. You wouldn’t be satisfied to be mere
spectators. It would be easier for you to be of two minds. You could
be at two places at once with your thoughts. You could live in two
space-time continuums.
We don’t want to infect
you. We don’t want to goad you into a show of feelings. We don’t
play feelings. We don’t embody feelings. We neither laugh nor weep.
We don’t want to infect you with laughter by laughing or with
weeping by laughing or with laughter by weeping or with weeping by
weeping. Although laughter is more infectious than weeping, we don’t
infect you with laughter by laughing. And so forth. We are not
playing. We play nothing. We don’t modulate. We don’t
gesticulate. We express ourselves by no means but words. We only
speak. We express. We don’t express ourselves but the opinion of
the author. We express ourselves by speaking. Our speaking is our
acting. By speaking, we become theatrical. We are theatrical because
we are speaking in a theater. By always speaking directly to you and
by speaking to you of time, of now and of now and of now, we observe
the unity of time, place, and action. But we observe this unity not
only here on stage. Since the stage is no world unto itself, we also
observe the unity down where you are. We and you form a unity because
we speak directly to you without interruption. Therefore, under
certain conditions, we, instead of saying you, could say we. That
signifies the unity of action. The stage up here and the auditorium
constitute a unity in that they no longer constitute two levels.
There is no radiation belt between us. There are no two places here.
Here is only one place. That signifies the unity of place. Your time,
the time of the spectators and auditors, and our time, the time of
the speakers, form a unity in that no other time passes here than
your time. Time is not bisected here into played time and play time.
Time is not played here. Only real time exists here. Only the time
that we, we and you, experience ourselves in our own bodies exists
here. Only one time exists here. That signifies the unity of time.
All three cited circumstances, taken together, signify the unity of
time, place, and action. Therefore this piece is classical.
Because we speak to you,
you can become conscious of yourself. Because we speak to you, your
self-awareness increases. You become aware that you are sitting. You
become aware that you are sitting in a theater. You become aware of
the size of your limbs. You become aware of how your limbs are
situated. You become aware of your fingers. You become aware of your
tongue. You become aware of your throat. You become aware how heavy
your head is. You become aware of your sex organs. You become aware
of batting your eyelids. You become aware of the muscles with which
you swallow. You become aware of the flow of your saliva. You become
aware of the beating of your heart. You become aware of raising your
eyebrows. You become aware of a prickling sensation on your scalp.
You become aware of the impulse to scratch yourself. You become aware
of sweating under your armpits. You become aware of your sweaty
hands. You become aware of your parched hands. You become aware of
the air you are inhaling and exhaling through your mouth and nose.
You become aware of our words entering your ears. You acquire
presence of mind.
Try not to blink your
eyelids. Try not to swallow any more. Try not to move your tongue.
Try not to hear anything. Try not to smell anything. Try not to
salivate. Try not to sweat. Try not to shift in your seat. Try not to
breathe.
Why, you are breathing.
Why, you are salivating. ‘Why, you are listening. Why, you are
smelling. Why, you are swallowing. Why, you are blinking your
eyelids. Why, you are belching. Why, you are sweating. Why, how
terribly self-conscious you are.
Don’t blink. Don’t
salivate. Don’t bat your eyelashes. Don’t inhale. Don’t exhale.
Don’t shift in your seat. Don’t listen to us. Don’t smell.
Don’t swallow. Hold your breath.
Swallow. Salivate. Blink.
Listen. Breathe.
You are now aware of your
presence. You know that it is your time that you are spending here.
You are the topic. You tie the knot. You untie the knot. You are the
center. You are the occasion. You are the reasons why. You provide
the initial impulse. You provide us with words here. You are the
playmakers and the counterplotters. You are the youthful comedians.
You are the youthful lovers, you are the ingénues, you are the
sentimentalists. You are the stars, you are the character actors, you
are the bon vivants and the heroes. You are the heroes and the
villains of this piece.
Before you came here, you
made certain preparations. You came here with certain preconceptions.
You went to the theater. You prepared yourself to go to the theater.
You had certain expectations. Your thoughts were one step ahead of
time. You imagined some thing. You prepared yourself for something.
You prepared yourself to partake in something. You prepared yourself
to be seated, to sit on the rented seat and to attend something.
Perhaps you had heard of this piece. So you made preparations, you
prepared yourself for something. You let events come toward you. You
were prepared to sit and have something shown to you.
The rhythm you breathed in
was different from ours. You went about dressing yourself in a
different manner. You got started in a different way. You approached
this location from different directions. You used the public
transportation system. You came on foot. You came by cab. You used
your own means of transportation. Before you got underway, you looked
at your watch. You expected a telephone call you picked up the
receiver, you turned on the lights, you turned out the lights, you
closed doors, you turned keys, you stepped out into the open. You
propelled your legs. You let your arms swing up and down as you
walked. You walked. You walked from different directions all in the
same direction. You found your way here with the help of your sense
of direction.
Because of your plan you
distinguished yourselves from others who were on their way to other
locations. Simply because of your plan, you instantly formed a unit
with the others who were on their way to this location. You had the
same objective. You planned to spend a part of your future together
with others at a definite time.
You crossed traffic lanes.
You looked left and right. You observed traffic signals. You nodded
to others. You stopped. You informed others of your destination. You
told of your expectations. You communicated your speculations about
this piece. You expressed your opinion of this piece. You shook
hands. You had others wish you pleasant evening. You took off your
shoes. You held doors open. You had doors held open for you. You met
other theatergoers. You felt like conspirators. You observed the
rules of good behavior. You helped out of coats. You let yourselves
be helped out of coats. You stood around. You walked around. You
heard the buzzers. You grew restless. You looked in the mirror. You
checked your makeup. You threw sidelong glances. You noticed sidelong
glances. You walked. You paced. Your movements became more formal.
You heard the buzzer. You looked at your watch. You became
conspirators. You took your seat. You took a look around. You made
yourself comfortable. You heard the buzzer. You stopped chatting. You
aligned your glances. You raised your heads. You took a deep breath.
You saw the lights dim. You became silent. You heard the doors
closing. You stared at the curtain. You waited. You became rigid. You
did not move any more. Instead, the curtain moved. You heard the
curtain rustling. You were offered an un- obstructed view of the
stage. Everything was as it always is. Your expectations were not
disappointed. You were ready. You leaned back in your seat. The play
could begin.
At other times you were
also ready. You were on to the game that was being played. You leaned
back in your seats. You perceived. You followed. You pursued. You let
happen. You let something happen up here that had happened long ago.
You watched the past which by means of dialogue and monologue made
believe it was contemporaneous. You let yourselves be captivated. You
let your selves become spellbound. You forgot where you were. You
forgot the time. You became rigid and remained rigid. You did not
move. You did not act. You did not even come up front to see better.
You followed no natural impulses. You watched as you watch a beam O
light that was produced long before you began to watch. You looked
into dead space. You looked at dead points. You experienced ad time.
You heard a dead language. You yourselves were in a dead, loom in a
dead time. It was dead calm. No breath of air moved. You did not
move. You stared. The distance between you and us was infinite. We
were infinitely far away from you. We moved at an infinite distance
from you. We had lived infinitely long before you. We lived up here
on the stage before the beginning of time. Your glances and our
glances met in infinity. An infinite space was between us. We played.
But we did not play with you. You were always posterity here.
Plays were played here.
Sense was played here. Nonsense with meaning was played here. The
plays here had a background and an underground. They had a false
bottom. They were not what they were. They were not what they seemed.
There was something in back of them. The things and the plot seemed
to be, but they were not. They seemed to be as they seemed, but they
were different. They did not seem to seem as in a pure play, they
seemed to be. They seemed to be reality. The plays here did not pass
the time, or they did not only pass the time. They had meaning. They
were not timeless like the pure plays, an unreal time passed in them.
The conspicuous meaninglessness of some plays was precisely what
represented their hidden meaning. Even the pranks of pranksters
acquired meaning on these boards. Always something lay in wait.
Always something lay in ambush between the words, gestures, props and
sought to mean something to you. Always something had two or more
meanings. Something was always happening. Something happened in the
play that you were supposed to think was real. Stories always
happened. A played and unreal time happened. What you saw and heard
was supposed to be not only what you saw and heard. It was supposed
to be what you did not see and did not hear. Everything was meant.
Everything expressed. Even what pretended to express nothing
expressed some thing because something that happens in the theater
expresses something. Everything that was played expressed something
real. The play was not played for the play’s sake but for the sake
of reality. You were to discover a played reality behind the play.
You were supposed to fathom the play. Not a play, reality was played.
Time was played. Since
time was played, reality was played. The theater played tribunal. The
theater played arena. The theater played moral institution. The
theater played dreams. The theater played tribal rites. The theater
played mirrors for you. The play exceeded the play. It hinted at
reality. It became impure. It meant. Instead of time staying out of
play, an unreal and uneffective time transpired. With the unreal time
an unreal reality was played. It was not there, it was only signified
to you, it was performed. Neither reality nor play transpired here.
If a clean play had been played here, time could have been left out
of play. A clean play has no time. But since a reality was played,
the corresponding time was also played. If a clean play had been
played here, there would have been only the time of the spectators
here. But since reality was part of the play here, there were always
two times: your time, the time of the spectators, and the played
time, which seemed to be the real time. But time cannot be played. It
cannot be repeated in any play. Time is irretrievable. Time is
irresistible. Time is unplayable. Time is real. It cannot be played
as real. Since time cannot be played, reality can not be played
either. Only a play where time is left out of play is a play. A play
in which time plays a role is no play. Only a timeless play is
without meaning. Only a timeless play is self-sufficient. Only a
timeless play does not need to play time. Only for a less play is
time without meaning. All other plays are impure plays. There are
only plays without time, or plays in which time is real time, like
the sixty minutes of a football game, which has only one time because
the time of the players is the same time as that of the spectators.
All other plays are sham plays. All other plays mirror meretricious
facts for you. A timeless play mirrors no facts.
We could do a play within
a play for you. We could act out happenings for you that are taking
place outside this room during these moments while you are
swallowing, while you are batting your eyelashes We could illustrate
the statistics. We could represent what is statistically taking place
at other places while you are at this place. By representing what is
happening, we could make you imagine these happenings. We could bring
them closer to you. We would not need to represent anything that is
past. We could play a clean game. For example, we could act out the
very process of dying that is statistically happening somewhere at
this moment. We could become full of pathos. We could declare that
death is the pathos of time, of which we speak all the time. Death
could be the pathos of this real time which you are wasting here. At
the very least, this play within a play would help bring this piece
to a dramatic climax.
But we are not putting
anything over on you. We don’t imitate. We don’t represent any
other persons and any other events, even if they statistically exist.
We can do without a play of features and a play of gestures. There
are no persons who are part of the plot and therefore no
impersonators. The plot is not freely invented, for there is no plot.
Since there is no plot, accidents are impossible. Similarity with
still living or scarcely dead or long-dead persons is not accidental
but impossible. For we don’t represent anything and are no others
than we are. We don’t even play ourselves. We are speaking. Nothing
is invented here. Nothing is imitated. Nothing is fact. Nothing is
left to your imagination.
Due to the fact that we
are not playing and not acting playfully, this piece is half as funny
and half as tragic. Due to the fact that we only speak and don’t
fall outside time, we cannot depict any thing for you and demonstrate
nothing for you. We illustrate nothing. We conjure up nothing out of
the past. We are not in conflict with the past. We are not in
conflict with the present. We don’t anticipate the future. In the
present, the past, and the future, we speak of time.
That is why, for example,
we cannot represent the now and now of dying that is statistically
happening now. We cannot represent the gasping for breath that is
happening now and now, or the tumbling and falling now, or the
tumbling and falling, or the death throes, or the grinding of teeth
now, or the last words, or the last sigh now, that is statistically
happening now this very second, or the last exhalation, or the last
ejaculation that is happening now, or the breathlessness that is
statistically commencing now, and now, and now, and now, and so on,
or the motionlessness now, or the statistically ascertainable rigor
mortis, or the lying absolutely quiet now. We cannot represent it. We
only speak of it. We are speaking of it now.
Due to the fact that we
only speak and due to the fact that we don’t speak of anything
invented, we cannot be equivocal or ambiguous. Due to the fact that
we play nothing, there cannot exist two or more levels here or a play
within a play. Due to the fact that we don’t gesticulate and don’t
tell you any stories and don’t represent anything, we cannot be
poetical. Due to the fact that we only speak to you, we lose the
poetry of ambiguity. For example, we cannot use the gestures and
expressions of dying that we mentioned to represent the gestures and
expressions of a simultaneously transpiring instance of sexual
intercourse that is statistically transpiring now. We can’t be
equivocal. We cannot play on a false bottom. We cannot remove
ourselves from the world. We don’t need to be poetic. We don’t
need to hypnotize you. We need to hoodwink you. We don’t need to
cast an evil eye on you. We don’t need a second nature. This is no
hypnosis. You don’t have to imagine anything. You don’t have to
dream with open eyes. With the illogic of your dreams you are not
dependent on the logic of the stage. The impossibilities of your
dreams do not have to confine themselves to the possibilities of the
stage. The absurdity of your dreams does not have to obey the
authentic laws of theater. Therefore we represent neither dreams nor
reality. We make claims neither for life nor for dying, neither for
society nor for the individual, neither for what is natural nor for
what is Supernatural, neither for lust nor for grief, neither for
reality nor for the play. Time elicits no elegies from us.
This piece is a prologue.
It is not the prologue to another piece but the prologue to what you
did, what you are doing, and ‘what you will do. You are the topic.
This piece is the prologue to the topic. It is the prologue to your
practices and customs. It is the prologue to your actions. It is the
prologue to your inactivity. It is the prologue to your lying, to
your sitting, to your standing, to your walking. It is the prologue
to the plays and to the serious ness of your life. It is also the
prologue to your future visits to the theater. It is also the
prologue to all other prologues. This piece is world theater.
Soon you will move. You
will make preparations. You will prepare yourself to applaud. You
will prepare yourself not to applaud. When you prepare to do the
former, you will clap one hand against the other, that is to say, you
will clap one palm to the other palm and repeat these claps in rapid
succession. Meanwhile, you will be able to watch your hands clapping
or not clapping. You will hear the sound of yourself clapping and the
sound of clapping next to you and you will see next to you and in
front of you the clapping hands bobbing back and forth or you will
not hear the expected clapping and not see the hands bobbing back and
forth. Instead, you will perhaps hear other sounds and will yourself
produce other sounds. You will prepare to get up. You will hear the
seats folding up behind you. You will see us taking our bows. You
will see the curtain come together. You will be able to designate the
noises the curtain makes during this process. You will pocket your
programs. You will exchange glances. You will exchange words. You
will get moving. You will make comments and hear comments. You will
suppress comments. You will smile meaningfully. You will smile
meaninglessly. You will push in an orderly fashion into the foyer.
You will show your hatchecks to redeem your hats and coats. You will
stand around. You will see yourselves in mirrors. You will help each
other into coats. You will hold doors open for each other. You will
say your goodbyes. You will accompany. You will be accompanied. You
will step into the open. You will return into the everyday. You will
go in different directions. If you remain together, you will be a
theater party. You will go to a restaurant. You will think of
tomorrow. You will gradually find your way back into reality. You
will be able to call reality harsh again. You will be sobered up. You
will lead your own Lives again. You will no longer be a unit. You
will go from one place to different places.
But before you leave you
will be offended.
We will offend you because
offending you is also one way of speaking to you. By offending you,
we can be straight with you. We can switch you on. We can eliminate
the free play. We can tear down a wall. We can observe you.
While we are
offending you, you won’t just hear us, you will listen to us. The
distance between us will no longer be infinite. True to the fact that
we’re offending you, your motionlessness and your rigidity will
finally become overt. But we won’t offend you, we will merely use
offensive words which you yourselves use. We will contradict
ourselves with our offenses. We will mean no one in particular. We
will only create an acoustic pattern. You won’t have to feel
offended. You were warned in advance, so you can feel quite
unoffended while we’re offending you. Since you are probably
thoroughly offended already, we will waste no more time before
thoroughly offending you, you chuckleheads.
You let the impossible
become possible. You were the heroes of this piece. You were sparing
with your gestures. Your parts were well rounded. Your scenes were
unforgettable. You did not play, you Were the part. You were a
happening. You were the find of the ‘evening. You lived your roles.
You had a lion’s share of the success. You saved the piece. You
were a sight. You were a sight to have seen, you ass-kissers.
You were always with it.
Your honest toiling didn’t help the piece a bit. You contributed
only the cues. The best you created was the little you left out. Your
silences said everything, you small-timers.
You were thoroughbred
actors. You began promisingly. You were true to life. You were
realistic. You put everything under your spell. You played us off the
stage. You reached Shakespearean heights, you jerks, you hoodlums,
you scum of the melting pot.
Not one wrong note crossed
your lips. You had control of every scene. Your playing was of
exquisite nobility. Your countenances were of rare exquisiteness. You
were a smashing cast. You were a dream cast. You were inimitable,
your faces unforgettable. Your sense of humor left us gasping. Your
tragedy was of antique grandeur. You gave your best, you
party-poopers, you freeloaders, you fuddy-duddies, you bubbleheads,
you powder puffs, you sitting ducks.
You were one of a kind.
You had one of your better days tonight. You played ensemble. You
were imitations of life, you drips, you diddlers, you atheists, you
double-dealers, you switch-hitters, you dirty Jews.
You showed us brand-new
vistas. You were well advised to do this piece. You outdid
yourselves. You played yourselves loose. You turned yourselves inside
out, you lonely crowd, you culture vultures, you nervous nellies, you
bronco busters, you moneybags, you pot- heads, you washouts, you wet
smacks, you fire eaters, you generation of freaks, you hopped-up sons
and daughters of the revolution, you napalm specialists.
You were priceless. You
were a hurricane. You drove shudders up our spines. Yon swept
everything before you, you Vietnam bandits, you savages, you
rednecks, you hatchet men, you subhumans, you fiends, you beasts in
human shape, you killer pigs.
You were the right ones.
You were breathtaking. You did not disappoint our wildest hopes. You
were born actors. Play-acting was in your blood, you butchers, you
buggers, you bullshitters, you bullies, you rabbits, you fuck-offs,
you farts.
You had perfect
breath-control, you windbags, you waspish wasps, you wags, you
gargoyles, you tackheads, you milquetoasts, you mickey-mice, you
chicken-shits, you cheap skates, you wrong numbers, you zeros, you
back numbers, you one-shots, you centipedes, you supernumeraries, you
superfluous lives, you crumbs, you card board figures, you pain in
the mouth.
You are accomplished
actors, you hucksters, you traitors to your country, you grafters,
you would-be revolutionaries, you reactionaries, you draft-card
burners, you ivory-tower artists, you defeatists, you massive
retaliators, you white-rabbit pacifists, you nihilists, you
individualists, you Communists, you vigilantes, you socialists, you
minute men, you whizz-kids, you turtledoves, you crazy hawks, you
stool pigeons, you worms, you antediluvian monstrosities, you
claquers, you clique of babbits, you rabble, you blubber, you
quivering reeds, you wretches, you ofays, you oafs, you spooks, you
blackbaiters, you cooky pushers, you abortions, you bitches and
bastards, you nothings, you thingamajigs.
O you cancer victims, O
you hemorrhoid sufferers, O you multiple sclerotics, O you
syphilitics, O you cardiac conditions, O you paranoids, O you
catatonics, O you schizoids, O you paranoids, O you hypochondriacs, O
you carriers of causes of death, O you suicide candidates, O you
potential peacetime casualties, O you potential war dead, O you
potential accident victims, O you potential in crease in the
mortality rate, O you potential dead.
You wax figures. You
impersonators. You bad-hats. You troupers. You tear-jerkers. You
potboilers. You foul mouths. You sell-outs.
You deadbeats. You
phonies. You milestones in the history of the theater. You historic
moments. You immortal souls. You positive heroes. You abortionists.
You anti-heroes. You everyday heroes. You luminaries of science. You
beacons in the dark. You educated gasbags. You cultivated classes.
You befuddled aristocrats. You rotten middle class. You lowbrows. You
people of our time. You children of the world. You sadsacks. You
church and lay dignitaries. You wretches. You congressmen. You
commissioners. You scoundrels. You generals. You lobbyists. You
Chiefs of Staff. You chairmen of this and that. You tax evaders. You
presidential advisers. You U-2 pilots. You agents. You
corporate-military establishment. You entrepreneurs. You Eminencies.
You Excellencies. You Holiness. Mr. President. You crowned heads. You
pushers. You architects of the future. You builders of a better
world. You mafiosos. You wiseacres. You smarty-pants. You who embrace
life. You who detest life. You who have no feeling about life. You
ladies and gents you, you celebrities of public and cultural life
you, you who are present you, you brothers and sisters you, you
comrades you, you worthy listeners you, you fellow humans you.
You were welcome here. We
thank you. Good night.
[The curtain comes
together at once. However, it does not remain closed but parts again
immediately regardless of the behavior of the public. The speakers
stand and look at the public without looking at anyone in particular.
Roaring applause and wild whistling is piped in through the
loudspeakers; to this, one might add taped audience reactions to
pop-music concerts. The deafening howling and yelling lasts until the
public begins to leave. Only then does the curtain come together once
and for all.]