Zwiegespräch (DIALOGUE)

No stage directions. No particular setting. Voices, two. Two people who meet up and have a conversation – and play-act together? Or the self-examination of a writer who – with his own inherent sensitivity, attentiveness and unwavering dedication to what is true, beautiful and good – seeks to rediscover all those qualities that make up his work? One or two old fools on the brink of leaving the world’s stage? Or does the „dialogue“ (Zwiegespräch) in the title of the play refer to the whispers of two lovers in the hayloft?

ZWIEGESPRÄCH proves that Peter Handke, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a playwright like no other, with an ability to use words to conjure up realities from silence and the empty theatre space. In contrast to his previous piece, ZDENĚK ADAMEC – an ode to a young suicide victim, infused with rage and understanding – Handke’s latest play makes a more restrained impression. A meditation on the theatre, on growing older, dying; a play about the spirits of our ancestors, who are always with us and want to have their say; and yet, a radical examination of one‘s own viewpoint, a call for us to be active participants in the world instead of mere observers.

Rieke Süßkow, directing her first production at the Burgtheater, tackles the world premiere of Handke’s ZWIEGESPRÄCH with a good hand for music and physicality, as well as a fresh perspective that goes well with Handke’s endeavour to keep reinventing himself as a poet.

INVITED TO THE BERLINER THEATERTREFFEN 2023