« "Sauve qui peut" pas mal comme titre »

PERFORMANCE IN FRENCH

""Redde wie zich redden kan" geen slechte titel"

PERFORMANCE IN DUTCH


text after 'Dramolette' (Eis, A Doda, Match, Freispruch and Maiandacht) by Thomas Bernhard
with Jolente De Keersmaeker, Sara De Roo and Damiaan De Schrijver

advice Matthias de Koning
costumes Inge Büscher
assistence costumes Filip Eyckmans
lighting design Thomas Walgrave
French translation Claude Porcell

many thanks to Martine Bom, Laurence D'Hondt and Gerhard Jäger

production tg STAN
coproducers of the French version KVS/Théâtre National (Brussels), Théâtre de la Bastille and Festival d'Automne (Paris)

premiere 16 February 2005, Kaaitheater, Brussels
premiere of the French version 17 October 2007, KVS/Théâtre National, Brussels

But after it had all happened, there was
chaos here. And a room that had
been completely ruined, and in that room
there were four dead men and
a name! And a door bearing
an unintelligible inscription.
But all of you, just look
at the whole. Whatever happened, we
positioned it in time in the right
order at the right places and
in the right words, that were
indeed spoken. And whatever you will see,
see at the end, it is what we saw:
chaos. And a room that is
completely ruined, and in that room
four dead men and
a name. Or three men who walk out the door
to go arrange matters
that are important to mankind
and a dead man
who is not dead yet, and in front of him
a door bearing an unambiguous inscription.

Bertolt Brecht


Jolente De Keersmaeker, Sara De Roo, and Damiaan De Schrijver perform a sequel to Alles is rustig (All is Quiet), a work in which Thomas Bernhard fulminates against the complacency of the intellectual and cultural elite.

Alles is rustig toured for five years in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, in both a Dutch and a French version. This inspired the performers to present other pieces by Bernhard.

Their first choice was Am Ziel (1981), but in the end they only kept one sentence from this work - which has now become the title of the new performance: « "Sauve qui peut" pas mal comme titre » (""Devil take the hindmost" not a bad title"), a combination of several of the author's Dramoletten.

Even more explicitly and ruthlessly than in Alles is Rustig, Bernhard dissects in these 'miniature dramas' the difficult Nazi past of the German people, something they still haven't come to terms with, as well as the latent fascisme in contemporary society.

« "Sauve qui peut" pas mal comme titre » is the second part of what is to become a Bernhard trilogy.