SOURCE: Firda, Richard Arthur. “Theatrical Experiments.” In Peter Handke, pp. 13-40. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.

In the following essay, Firda examines the techniques Handke uses to explore language in his plays.

Early Theater, 1966-1967

Though Peter Handke had published an experimental novel, Die Hornissen, in 1966, it was the premiere of his first play, Publikumsbeschimpfung, in that same year that established his name as an innovator in modern German theater.¹ Publikumsbeschimpfung, first performed on 8 June 1966 at the leftist-oriented Theater am Turm in Frankfurt under the direction of Claus Peymann, is the first work in a collection of Sprechstücke (Language plays). The German word Sprechstücke recalls the focus in a language play on words, sentences, and language as primary reasons for writing and viewing a play.² The underlying experience for the viewer-reader becomes clear only as he or she confronts the play on the stage or reads it...