A well known, controversial play. Opened at the Arcola Theatre in February 2010. 1988 stage drama by Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard. The final play written by Bernhard, it premiered on November 4, 1988 and sparked one of the biggest theater scandals in the history of post-war Austria. Heldenplatz was commissioned by Claus Peymann, director of the Viennese Burgtheater, to be performed for the hundredth anniversary of the theater's opening. The year also coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Anschluss when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Heldenplatz is the square where Adolph Hitler was greeted on March 15, 1938 and he addressed thousands of jubilant Austrians. Bernhard wrote his play as a tragic reflection on the obsessive politics of nationalism, the denial of the past and the continued anti-Semitism within modern Austria. Although the play was to be published only after the premiere, selected extracts were leaked to the press in the days prior to the first performance. The quotations, taken out of context, caused a public uproar and Bernhard was vilified. Heldenplatz was also understood as a veiled attack on the election of Austria's president Kurt Waldheim who called the play "an insult to the Austrian people." Demonstrations were held and Bernhard, in one instance, was physically assaulted.
Author
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian writer who ranks among the most distinguished German-speaking writers of the second half of the 20th century. Although internationally he's most acclaimed because of his novels, he was also a prolific playwright. His characters are often at work on a lifetime and never-ending major project while they deal with themes such as suicide, madness and obsession, and, as Bernhard did, a love-hate relationship with Austria. His prose is tumultuous but sober at the same time, philosophic by turns, with a musical cadence and plenty of black humor. He started publishing in the year 1963 with the novel Frost. His last published work, appearing in the year 1986, was Extinction. Some of his best-known works include The Loser (about a student's fictionalized relationship with the pianist Glenn Gould), Wittgenstein's Nephew, and Woodcutters.
