SOURCE: “Bernhard as Playwright,” in Understanding Thomas Bernhard, University of South Carolina Press, 1991, pp. 71–84.

In the following essay, Dowden asserts that for Bernhard’s plays to be fully understood and appreciated, they should be considered in light of how they were performed as well as the conditions surrounding their performance.

The last Thomas Bernhard drama to premiere was Elisabeth II. The play was published in 1987 and appeared on the stage two years later, at the Schiller-Theater in Berlin in November 1989, nine months after Bernhard’s death. The play was vintage Bernhard—hard-bitten, uncompromising, and musical—but Claus Peymann, Bernhard’s usual director, did not stage the production; the usual Bernhard stars (Bernhard Minetti, Bruno Ganz, Edith Heerdegen, Paula Wessely) did not participate; and the master himself was dead. The play was a failure with the public and the critics. Somehow the fire had gone out.

The reasons seem...