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Thom a s B e r n h a r d

Translated by Gitta Honegger

Minetti

characters

minetti, a performing artist a midget

a lady a drunk

a girl a crippled man

the girl’s boyfriend a waiter

hotel clerk masked revelers

All photographs are of
porter Bernhard Minetti as
setting Minetti in Thomas
an old, limping man
Bernhard’s Minetti,
First, second, and third scene: an old hotel directed by Claus
an old couple
in Ostend, Belgium Peymann, Stuttgart,
1988. Photos:
Epilogue: Atlantic coast nearby Hannes Kilian.

German copyright © 1976 Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. English copyright © 1999 by Gitta Honegger. All rights
reserved. No part of this play may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, and information storage and retrieval systems, without permission from the author.
CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that, being fully protected under the copyright laws of the
United States of America, the British Commonwealth, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the
Copyright Union, this play is subject to royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation,
lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.
Permission for production, etc., in German should be obtained from Suhrkamp Verlag, Lindenstraße 29-35, D-60325
Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Permission for production, etc., in English should be obtained from Gitta Honegger,
Department of Drama, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 20064.

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Scene One to the hotel clerk

Lobby A blizzard
a real blizzard
An old English elevator SL
in the direction the others are looking
SR the reservation desk, behind it the
hotel clerk leafing through old hotel Then I’ll put on my mask
brochures I can deal with New Year’s Eve
I’ve got my method
In the back an old sofa, an old lady (dressed
drinks
in red) sitting on it, drinking and smoking
Virginia cigars I’ll go to bed with my monkey mask
and wait
A porter enters SR with a huge old
monkey mask over my face over my head
suitcase, he puts it down in front of the
the whole bottle of champagne all at once
hotel clerk’s desk
It’s the third year now
hotel clerk looking up that I do New Year’s Eve that way
What’s that as if she is observing a strange person
porter whispering two bottles if need be
A funny old man a ruse of course
flirtation with suffocation
hotel clerk and porter look in the a perversity
direction from where the porter just I got fatter
entered with the huge suitcase the monkey mask stitched together
lady drinks, then to the hotel clerk three times already

Getting through this drinks

Alone stitched together
Don’t forget my champagne Hands folded below the monkey mask
Two bottles if necessary But not at home
I want to drink it alone at the hotel
alone you know
laughs and looks in the same direction as here in this hotel
the others as if to instruct herself
it doesn’t matter really Make it to eleven
I have to brace myself you know then upstairs
with emphasis to your room
mask on
Brace myself champagne finished
The world’s filled and into bed
with lunatics Head masked
unbelievable Legs stockinged
The decadence is typical

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laughs out loud Completely changed

Change in progress
And if it doesn’t work
Everything is just a question of time
another bottle of champagne
lady drinks
drinks and looks at the suitcase, then back
again in the opposite direction A question of time

The gentleman no doubt The elevator is called from above

who comes with the suitcase minetti introduces himself to the lady

minetti enters in an old ankle-length winter Minetti

coat, black patent leather shoes, spats, carrying a who resisted
wide-rimmed hat and umbrella on his left arm. classic literature
The drawstring from his underpants hangs down
looks at the ceiling again
to the floor as he walks slowly, looking in all
directions, to the center of the lobby and says to the Hate progress
hotel clerk hate progress

to the lady
Minetti
Don’t you think
takes a change purse from his coat pocket there comes a time
and looks for appropriate change, finds it, one must hate progress
wants to hand it to the porter by quickly
taps the snow off his coat with both
holding out to him his hand with the coin,
hands
but the porter doesn’t move
A blizzard in Ostend
Here
is a monstrosity
porter takes the coin
to the lady

minetti looks at the ceiling, at all four I have an appointment

walls and into all four corners of the lobby right here
with the artistic director
How it has changed
of the Flensburg Theater
how it keeps changing slowly
I am an actor
to the lady
looks at the ceiling
thirty years ago
How everything changed
thirty-two years ago to be exact
I love Ostend
that was the last time
The gray
to the porter The coast
The Atlantic Coast
Room number seventy-four
seventy-four The elevator arrives with a sizable group
of masked people who run into the lobby
looks up at the ceiling again
laughing and screaming. They pass

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minetti nearly knocking him over and is in that suitcase

rush outside made by Ensor himself
That mask
minetti in their direction Lear’s mask
is my most precious possession
Outrageous
outrageous to the lady

lady as she drinks notices the drawstring The mask is Lear

of minetti’s underpants
he points his umbrella at the corner again
I am expecting the artistic director of
In that corner
Flensburg
a philosophical settlement no doubt
During the Flensburg Theater’s bicentennial
I will play Lear more intense
Shakespeare
James Ensor
I haven’t acted in thirty years
I wanted Lear’s mask
I haven’t gone on stage in thirty years
made by Ensor
to the lady and Ensor
made the mask for me
Lear you know
King Lear loud
The most important dramatic work
A monstrous perversity
in all of world literature
carrying
as he quotes he looks back in the direction all of world literature
he came from on one’s head
in front of one’s face
Thou think’st ’tis much that this contentious
storm points to the corner again
invades us to the skin
I suddenly thought
so ’tis to thee
he was Shakespeare
but where the greater malady is fix’d
while it was Ensor I talked to
the lesser is scarce felt
Theater is a monstrous art
looks at the ceiling I said to Ensor
make me the mask
Lear
for my performance of Lear
points to the USR corner with his I said
umbrella
lady drinks
There in that corner
But the man didn’t know Shakespeare
I spoke with Ensor
He wanted to study Lear
James Ensor
but I told him
with Ensor in person
don’t study Lear
points to his suitcase forget all classic literature
all of it you understand
Lear’s mask

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That man had no clue about Shakespeare minetti

and not the slightest clue about Lear
No phone call
and not the slightest clue about all world
literature hotel clerk
But Ensor made the mask for me
No sir
the most monstrous mask
No phone call sir
that ever was made
In that mask I will perform minetti
at the Flensburg Theater’s bicentennial It will resolve itself
celebration
The artistic director has my word to the lady
An artist like me Everything will resolve itself
can’t let an artistic director down
to the hotel clerk
looks at the ceiling
I’ll wait
Lear wait right here
in Ensor’s mask wait right here in the lobby
lady drinks to the lady
A limping old man enters SR, has the Maybe you even know the artistic director
hotel clerk hand him his key and from Flensburg
hobbles off SL he comes here every year
minetti to the hotel clerk at this time of year
An appointment by telegram
Didn’t the artistic director here in this hotel
leave a message
What time is it looks at the ceiling, then

hotel clerk The decision to play Lear

one more time
Nine-thirty sir was quite an effort
minetti looks at his pocket watch and a high point
Only one more time
Nine-thirty then never again
I am late I swore to myself
because of the blizzard never again
taps his coat one more time, then only one last time
Thirty years no stage
Did no one ask for me
thirty years nothing
hotel clerk I resisted classic literature
with the exception of Lear
No sir
in Ensor’s mask
lady drinks Now Lear one more time
in Ensor’s mask

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It’s nerves These so-called performing arts

this horrible climate you know he asked
Nothing
lady drinks
The elevator is called from upstairs
minetti very quietly to the lady
A coincidence
He knew nothing
a conversation about a guest performance
about Shakespeare
A lady from Rotterdam
nothing
with a terrible cold
as if he’d never heard
with whom I discussed my performing
of Shakespeare
Lear
and then
in Rotterdam
turns around and points his umbrella at That’s when I met Ensor
the suitcase and made an appointment with Ensor
in this hotel
the mask
as I made an appointment with the artistic
I always carry the mask
director
with me
for now
in that suitcase
And Ensor made the mask for me
no trip without that suitcase
and I played Lear in Ensor’s mask
and Ensor’s mask in it
I would never commit such treason very quietly
Now Lear again
Sometimes we are in command
It was the artistic director who wanted me
of everything
to play Lear
at the Flensburg Theater’s bicentennial An old couple enters SR, they get their
key from the hotel clerk and cross to
looks to the corner, then points his
the elevator that has arrived with a crowd
umbrella towards it
of laughing revelers in masks. The revelers
A shy person my lady carrying glasses and bottles laugh and
terrifying at the same time scream as they cross the hall to run outside.
I was terrified The old couple takes the elevator which
All artists are terrified moves up
Art and terror
People like that determine the course of minetti after observing the old couple
history
Lear
Mutual injuries you know
in Ensor’s mask
declaiming loudly
looks at the ceiling
These so-called visual arts
Coincidences
what are they
are a horror
I asked Ensor
to his face lady suddenly
He didn’t answer

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The drawstring sir minetti

the drawstring of your underpants
No room
it’s undone
no room
drinks I wait here

minetti bends over and notices the looks at his watch

drawstring. He tries to tie it but doesn’t
I might stay
succeed
who knows
First the underpants’ drawstring’s undone maybe as the guest
First thing undone of the artistic director

drinks and laughs points his umbrella at the suitcase

undone first If it bothers you there

the drawstring of the underpants move it out of the way
the drawstring of the underpants
porter picks up the suitcase and wants
to carry it off
minetti

The drawstring of the underpants of course minetti brandishing his umbrella against the
of course the drawstring of the underpants porter

gives up his struggle with the drawstring Leave it

of his underpants leave it there
leave it right there
porter tries to tie the drawstring of the
underpants and finally succeeds porter puts the suitcase down again,
three feet from the spot where it’s been
Times change
before
pulls his shirt collar
Here
The drawstring of the underpants here
lady drinks porter picks up the suitcase again
minetti points his umbrella where he
Increasing exhaustion
wants him to put down the suitcase
exhaustion increasing
There
porter back to the hotel clerk’s
there
desk
right there
Because I resisted
porter puts down the suitcase in the
classic literature
designated spot
porter asking
Ensor’s mask
A room with bath
porter back to the reservation desk
Mister Minetti
Classless society

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understands nothing mathematics ad absurdum

absolutely nothing The art of acting as the reason for being
All the time we develop my lady
a tragedy what a monstrosity
or a comedy The dimming
even as we develop the tragedy the darkening
which is nothing but a comedy of the spirit
and vice versa Didn’t shy away
depending on one’s presence of mind from taunts
you know and jeers
The art of acting is what it Broke up with people
comes down to again and again broke up with everyone and everything

lady drinks to the porter

Being Broke with substance

The art of acting for the art of acting
you know against the audience
The construction is dramatic against
theatrical against
The method theatrical again and again against
The thought again and again against
the art of acting My brother went
theater
points his umbrella in one direction
being
through serving the art of acting that way
an awesome construction I went
in which we are everything
points in the opposite direction
My brother the mathematician
with whom I discussed thirty-three this way
years ago If we want to reach our goal
in this very building we always have to take the opposite
the integral direction
took one road to the lady
I the other
he the road of science The opposite direction my lady
I the road of art to the porter
the way of art my lady
I succumbed to an insane idea More and more loneliness
when I succumbed to the art of acting less and less understanding
lost irretrievably more and more misunderstanding
in the substance of acting deeper and deeper rejection
you understand Once we reach our goal
I even reduced my brother’s existence we’ve gone beyond

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way beyond our idea minetti rushes to him and raps the porter’s
exited from society fingers with his umbrella
exited nature
The suitcase stays right there
looks at his watch there
there
We abandoned substance
it’s just a moment porter back to the reservation desk
one short moment
Maybe
the shortest moment
could be
and we are dead
that I won’t stay
A grimace is all that’s left
that I’ll travel on
nothing else
that I’ll go back
A gesture
to Dinkelsbühl
The startled head
nothing else after a pause
All our lives we put on
In one terrible moment
a show
I put on the mask
no one understands
for life
But we go that way
it terrified society
and no other
it terrified me
this one and only way
for life
until we are dead
we fear
and as long as we live we don’t know
what we don’t see
is it mathematics
is it the art of acting lady drinks

to the lady minetti to the lady, waving his

umbrella
It is insanity my lady
The actor
thinks the artistic director is entering,
the artist
wants to go to him, but it is a midget
the madman you know
in a sailor’s suit who gets his key from the
The bankrupt
hotel clerk and crosses through the
the stage sensitizer
lobby to the elevator. He takes the elevator
the violator
upstairs
the art violator
minetti takes a step back, then to the lady
lady drinks
I thought
The actor comes across the writer
the artistic director
and the writer destroys the actor
had arrived
as the actor destroys the writer
porter wants to pick up minetti’s annihilates him you know
suitcase Settling accounts
settling accounts

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when we settle accounts It didn’t come loose again

we don’t take the writer into account the drawstring of my underpants my lady
the writer doesn’t take the actor into account The nerve to keep on talking
In any case when he should keep quiet
we approach madness always on the verge
And when the actor settles with the writer of a deadly injury
and the writer settles with the actor of falling into the abyss my lady
nature’s out of joint
the midget crossing the lobby from SL
That’s when you’ve got art my lady
and exiting
Artists Equity
So many hundreds and thousands and minetti looking after the midget
hundreds of thousands of efforts
When all are quiet
exertions brought to ruin
it’s he who keeps talking
all kinds of insults and injuries inflicted
that’s how his existence is always
upon us
another existence
beaten to death
his head another
destroyed
even what he keeps to himself
no matter what we do
is different
points his umbrella at the audience he acts differently

There taps his head

such a madman playing a madman must tell
dies differently
himself
It’s from down there tapping his head, to the porter
that you get killed In this head sir
to the lady everything is different
Everything is different sir
You must understand my lady
read other books
the world is filled with devastating artistic
studied other philosophies
existences
kept meeting other people all my life
as if to himself a totally different
a totally opposite relationship to nature
Ridicule
derision contemplates his shoes
destruction
and everything is nothing but an error
looks at his watch
to the lady who is drinking
The nerve he’s got
don’t you think so my lady
talking on and on
this is how someone like myself
that madman
destroys something other than
you think
that which he is accused of by the world
bends over to check whether the draw- while he walks straight into the catastrophe
string of his underpants came loose again

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looks at the ceiling

This hotel
is full of misunderstandings
They are bound to drive a man like myself
absolutely crazy
just as the whole world is bound to drive that
kind of man crazy

lady drinks

That’s when I feel

that all there is
is mental refuse

as if to himself

Sensation
Destruction
Mental refuse

wants to sit down; exhausted he sits down

on the sofa, next to the lady

Practicality
is what kills us all
all of us my lady

looks at his watch

The artist of the mind

an artist of the head who injured himself
fatally
who walked straight into the catastrophe disturbed disturbed
wherever we look today
nothing but an entertainment mechanism
S c e n e Tw o Into the artistic catastrophe my lady
into the most incredible of all artistic
As before
catastrophes
minetti with the drawstring of his underpants that’s where everything needs to be
undone again pushed
pushed you hear
Suddenly the fall
pushed right into it
into laziness
terrible after a pause
irresponsible
Young man that I was
The world wants to be entertained
who entered the fatal art of acting
but it needs to be disturbed
and got fatally injured

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No one today off the writer

would injure himself fatally and puts it on himself
We live in a repulsive society and drives out the audience
that gave up injuring itself fatally by putting the thinking cap on the
audience
staring straight ahead
We must not capitulate
Lear no capitulation
in search of if we give in
the work of art it’s all over
always brooding over If we give in for just one moment
the mind’s subject
exclaims
digging for
the work of art Not for one moment

lady drinks quietly, calmly

Headlong into the work of art Waiting in ambush

my lady to put the thinking cap
headlong on stupidity
With the mind’s subject again and again
against mental refuse every day
with the work of art ruthlessly
against society against everybody
against stupidity against everything
all through life
thrashing the air with his umbrella
all through life you understand
suddenly
lady drinks
Out and away
minetti to the hotel clerk
with his head down
Not letting them confuse you
Pulling the thinking cap
Sir
over stupidity
not letting them confuse you
loud, outraged
quietly, outlining the horizon with
suffocate stupidity his umbrella
with the thinking cap
Then suddenly there is
suffocate
silence
society
confronting the spoken word
everything
underneath the thinking cap very slowly and quietly to himself
Instigate a performance
Listen
and pull the thinking cap over stupidity
The sea
Listen my lady
Mathematics
The actor pulls the mask
Hardship

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Terror staring straight ahead

Ambition
The science of the head
Loneliness
and the legs
Wind
The coast notices the loose drawstring of his
That word coast underpants, waves over the porter and
points his umbrella at the drawstring
almost singing
There
coast
there
coast
and then porter bends down and ties the
fog drawstring
perception
minetti to the porter
jealousy
Harmony
suddenly screaming out loud
Disharmony
Help Body of art
art bodies
very softly
artifacts everywhere sir
Murder
to the porter, with the help of his
directly to the lady umbrella

When all that’s left is the O that’ll do

or just the U that’ll do
or the I
porter jumps up, returns to the
as if crowing reservation desk

Cockadoodle-doo Ear
Cockadoodle-doo Eye
Cockadoodle-doo Madness
Control of the body
after a pause
Control of the mind
Blasphemy
to the lady
directly to the lady
Magnetism my lady
Considerations One single moment
Movements my lady in which to show
Thoughtfulness perceive
Speechlessness and destroy
Soundlessness my lady annihilate
It is a trial by ridicule all of classic literature
a trial by derision all at once
and that for life all in one single moment

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Making a mess of history New Year’s Eve fanaticism

or history of a mess New Year’s Eve

looks at his watch the same group returns to the lobby and
takes the elevator upstairs
In Flensburg my lady
To celebrate the bicentennial Artistic directors
are unreliability
with his head down
lateness personified
Always sniffling An actor can never count
always sneezing on an artistic director’s punctuality
those people
to the lady
are the most resilient
imaginable In Lübeck
the Hanseatic city of Lübeck
directly to the lady
forty years ago you know
The artistic director where I ran a theater
is a childhood friend before I withdrew for good
a distant relative from classic literature
very distant I hated performing the classics
from Flensburg all the time
Never let exhaustion I hate classic literature
surface I hate classic art
get the brain anything classic
to suppress it Except for Lear
Fired you know
lady drinks
driven out by the senators
minetti to the porter to Dinkelsbühl
Only the young Sooner or later
have an affinity all artistic directors are driven out
to madness of that horrible city of Lübeck
a natural affinity All those port cities stink
only the young but Lübeck stinks the most mercilessly
have an intellectual motive directly to the lady
The elevator comes down with a group of I hate the Baltic Sea
laughing and screaming young people in I hate the North Sea
masks who rush out the lobby Ostend you understand
minetti looking after them Dunkirk
fateful
Fanaticism very fateful
Intelligence
and fanaticism suddenly

to the lady But my greatest love is England

England

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of all countries I love England the most
Shakespeare and Scotland Yard
or vice versa
as if balancing his umbrella on the tip of
his right shoe
minetti to the lady, pointing his umbrella at
the corner
James Ensor and Shakespeare
You should have seen the two
There in that corner

Scotland Yard and England looks at his suitcase

But a continental actor in England
For thirty years
is an impossibility
I’ve been carrying this suitcase with me
A man like me is condemned
and in that suitcase Lear’s mask
without pardon
by Ensor
to a continental existence
and several clippings
for life my lady
about myself
Here in Ostend I feel
Reviews
as if I can breathe in English air
articles about me
English air
Most of all the articles
An unmitigated continental existence
concerning my trial
is a disaster
concerning the lawsuit
directly to the lady brought against me by the City of Lübeck
because I resisted the classics
Once near Folkestone
And I lost the trial
I was thrown into the English Channel
Quite in the nature of things
by an innkeeper
a man like myself
on New Year’s Eve
loses every trial
Holding on to the Sunday edition of the
It’s our corrupt society
London Times
that wins every trial
I was pulled out of the water
I was right
thus owing my further existence
but the city of Lübeck won the case
to the London Times
because I resisted the classics my lady
However
The individual
I often asked myself my lady
no matter how right he is
if it wouldn’t have been better
loses every case
to let go of the London Times
I would have saved myself a lot of trouble A drunk enters, gets his key from the
hotel clerk and takes the elevator
to the hotel clerk
upstairs
Not a word
Everything I owned
An appointment for nine
went into the trial
and not a word
very softly
hotel clerk
Because I resisted
Not a word classic literature
Mister Minetti After that I sentenced myself

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to thirty years solitary confinement keys, crossing the lobby, and taking the
in Dinkelsbühl elevator up
I know what I am talking about my lady
minetti looking after the crippled man
Life is a farce
called existence by intelligent people Lear
I was driven out of Lübeck and others
I hated Lübeck ever since
after a pause
My hometown
For thirty years I refused to perform The one who persists
in a classic play is doomed to be destroyed by society
I would have played Lear sits down again
Lear is a different matter
That’s how I deteriorated lady drinks
quite in the nature of things I had every opportunity
Thirty years Dinkelsbühl but I wasn’t able to take advantage
Self-justice my lady of those opportunities
I own nothing but this suitcase Truth fanaticism
The artistic director Paranoia
The childhood friend Hypersensibility my lady
Frisian
Frisian my lady lady drinks
A Frisian An oath
suddenly pathetically it was an oath

All of Germany was against me takes a photograph from his coat pocket
and destroyed me and hands it to the lady
Woe to the one who dares Here in this photograph
to follow his own head you can see me
against society as Lear
against public opinion My farewell performance in Lübeck
Thirty years Dinkelsbühl
lady contemplates the photograph,
Anything that even barely resembles
compares it with minetti
anything classic
I detest it Lear
I flee from the classics in Ensor’s mask
A significant artist must flee from the
looking straight ahead
classics
Thirty years unemployed in Germany A portrait of the artist
in Dinkelsbühl as a young man
because I resisted the classics
lady returns the photograph
He jumps up thinking the artistic director
I played Lear
has entered, but it is only a crippled man
all over northern Germany
in a dog’s mask, on crutches, asking for his

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

but no one gets up, walks to his suitcase, points his

understood Lear umbrella at the suitcase, and says to the
or Shakespeare lady
Neither Shakespeare
Because I persisted
nor Lear
persisted my lady persisted
nothing
The elevator comes down with laughing
directly to the lady
and screaming people storming out of it
That’s depressing my lady

puts the photograph back in his S c e n e Th r e e

pocket
In the bar. minetti and the girl on the
When you’re touring with Lear
sofa
and no one understands Lear
and no one understands Shakespeare The suitcase in the front, on the floor
and no one understands the actor
The girl has a small transistor radio
who plays Lear
with jazz music playing softly
grasps his head with both hands
minetti
that’s madness
You don’t believe me
after a pause that I’m famous
I was famous
Then they brought me to trial
Minetti
and then I went to my sister to
who resisted the classics
Dinkelsbühl
I played Lear in Lübeck
to Dinkelsbühl
Shakespeare
if you know
The art of acting
where that is
is a treacherous art
my lady
my child
and I went into hiding
planted vegetables points to his suitcase
pickled cabbage
The proof is
made onion braids
in this suitcase
loud, angry First I started
with very simple tricks
Lear went into hiding
the simplest tricks
leaning on his umbrella, looking straight How to make a person disappear
ahead for example
A magician
And now I will play Lear
just a magician you understand
after thirty years
all through northern Germany
in Flensburg
and down the coast all the way to Biarritz

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

with my father You don’t know what that means

but suddenly my wrist Lear Shakespeare my child
here you see
looks around
shows her his right wrist, shakes it
In this blizzard
an inflammation You’re probably going to a dance
my career was over with your boyfriend
My father was desperate What kind of mask will you wear
The whole family on the brink of ruin You are wearing a mask aren’t you
I made people disappear my child
girl shakes her head
on stage
three people at a time No mask
or four No mask my child
or five Thirty years
suddenly the inflammation of the wrist I haven’t played Lear
you understand on a stage
a decent stage
shakes his wrist
I resisted classic literature
That’s when I remembered I got the mask from Ensor
my first talent in person
and I became an actor I saw Ensor
an absolute slave to dramatic literature together with Shakespeare
I gave up magic tricks There
for dramatic art my child
points to the lobby
for dramatic literature
Shakespeare Strindberg you understand An incredible encounter
Wait
suddenly
takes the photograph from his coat pocket
How long have you been waiting
and shows it to the girl
girl
That’s me
Not long Lear
in the mask of Ensor
minetti
points to the picture
We’re both waiting
As a very young man
girl turns up the radio
girl takes the photograph
You’re waiting for your boyfriend
I wait for the artistic director A sensation my child
I have an appointment here gets up and recites
with the artistic director
He invited me O reason not the need
to play Lear in Flensburg our basest beggars are in the poorest thing
superfluous

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allow not nature more than nature needs driven from Lübeck you understand
man’s life is cheap as beast’s I
driven out of northern Germany
suddenly
because I resisted classic literature
We must not let them humiliate us Driven out
not humiliate my child as director
But there is no recipe for living and actor
Now I’ll show you the proof I woke up again in Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl
opens the suitcase and takes out several old
newspapers over to the sofa with the papers, kneeling
by the sofa he leafs through them
Here
Everything
reads from a paper
that’s been written about the trial
This significant artist defamation
to whom the theater owes so many highlights distortion and defamation
has done it again last night nothing but venom
His Lear in Ensor’s mask That I ruined the theater
dwarfed the rest of dramatic literature that I offended people
dwarfed that I committed the biggest theatrical
dwarfed crime
dwarfed my child by resisting the classics
reads from other papers That I made the theater ridiculous
and finally destroyed it
The art of this actor deceived the audience
has reached the pinnacle cheated and deceived it
The pinnacle
the pinnacle my child takes a paper and reads

reads from another paper Here they write

Mister Minetti is a disgrace to the city of
One of our greatest actors Lübeck
whose performance last night set yet another What was your father
monument to his art
girl
suddenly
A railroad engineer
Enough
disgusting disgusting disgusting minetti
it is disgusting my child A railroad engineer
takes the papers, stuffs them back in his Where
suitcase, and takes out another stack of girl
papers
In Lüttich
A little later they put me on trial
minetti

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

In Lüttich compared to him

that ugly town Then they brought me to trial
my poor child because I resisted classic literature
The city of Lübeck committed
sits down on the sofa next to the girl
a breach of contract
so one day you left The city of Lübeck has me
on her conscience
girl nods
My hometown has her native sons
You did the right thing on her conscience
You have to get out of the place The place of birth is the murderer of her
you come from as soon as possible people
Otherwise you perish
suddenly
looks towards the lobby to see whether the
Do you want to see it
artistic director is coming, then at his
watch girl doesn’t know what he means

That I didn’t turn my back on Lübeck The mask

has taken its toll Ensor’s mask
Whoever takes on the position of artistic The Lear mask
director my child that Ensor made for me
commits suicide I show you the mask
If we hadn’t learned anything
tries to open the suitcase but doesn’t succeed
and we didn’t have our art
and gives up
we would sink daily into deeper and deeper
despair It’s not meant to be
my child
looks towards the lobby to see whether the
Later
artistic director is coming, then
and then perhaps
At first they’re all on time the last time
but then In Flensburg I’ll put on the mask again
they are lateness personified and play Lear
I almost think whom I haven’t played
he won’t come in thirty years
but then again it is he who wants something the last time it was for the senators
not I not I for no one else
It is an abomination a so-called closed performance
standing up a person with whom one had No applause
an appointment nothing
A Minetti is not to be my child
stood up Absolute silence
But artistic directors are megalomaniacs after the curtain came down
There was a time nothing
when people said they didn’t move a finger
there’s no one

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

An abomination The great actors always horrified their

Then they brought me to trial audiences
The actor first they tricked them
is victim to his fixed idea on the one hand then they horrified them
on the other he is totally the victim of the lured them into the trap of history
audience into the mental trap
He attracts the audience into the emotional trap
and repels it lured them into the trap
in my case I always repelled and horrified them
the audience The actor’s biggest enemy
The greater the actor is his audience
and the higher the art of the actor Once he knows that
the more vehement is the audience’s repulsion he grows in his art
Audiences flock to the great actor Every moment the actor has to tell himself
but in reality they are repulsed by his art the audience will storm the stage
The more phenomenal his art That’s the state in which he has to act
the more repulsed is his audience against the audience
People applaud against human rights you understand
but they are repulsed All my life I performed
Or people are repulsed like the senators in against the audience
Lübeck so I could bear the tension
who were so repulsed by my art so as not to weaken
that they didn’t move a finger My father the magician
People come to the theater was my teacher
to see a great actor my only teacher you understand
and right away they are repulsed by his the most relentless one
eeriness The man with a mind
If the actor shows his eeriness It was from him I learned
and he must show it to hear
the audience is repelled and see
The actor must show it to understand my child
eeriness nothing else People have no ears
Audiences stream in from all directions to hear
stream stream from all directions they have no eyes
to see the actor to see
and the actor meets the audience with nothing they have no mind
but We live in a completely mindless society
his eeriness if one doesn’t grasp this my child
The audience is put to a test
looks at his watch
The audience must be horrified by the actor
to himself
First he has to trick them
then he has to horrify them One time only
during the bicentennial

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

very softly an actor’s head like no one else

Hypocrisy
the ticket
nothing but hypocrisy
from Dinkelsbühl to Ostend
suddenly in one single moment
cost me all my money
I resisted classic literature
If he doesn’t come
I hated the classics
gets up and walks to the lobby everything classic
comes back again disappointed that moment I had the whole world
to the girl against me
All their lives artists depend
You don’t know people
whether they like it or not
all they ever do
upon the so-called educated world
is trick each other
and if an artist resists classic art
to himself the so-called educated world drops him
Maybe he is a dead man my child
the whole thing is looks at his watch
a mystification
First I thought
a mystification
I would hide
I think
disappointed
it’s the artistic director
naturally disappointed
but a midget enters
but only for the shortest time
or a crippled man
in Dinkelsbühl
Every time the door opens I think
that tiny sleepy dump
it is the artistic director
in the boondocks
to the girl but I stayed all of thirty years
I lost the proof in Dinkelsbühl
the telegram thirty years my child
in which the artistic director asks me In that time I studied all of classic literature
to come to Ostend so that I would finally know
why I resisted it
sits down next to the girl Lear yes
Every day but the rest of the classics no
for thirty years In my sister’s attic in Dinkelsbühl
I put on the Lear mask on the thirteenth of every month
in front of the mirror my child in front of the mirror
thirty years every day in the morning a few I played Lear
moments of Lear always at 8 p.m. sharp
in Dinkelsbühl in Ensor’s mask my child
I performed in Berlin to keep in practice
in Moscow And on all other days
in Minsk an appropriate recital my child
in Constantinople Lear lines


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

always the same Lear lines directly to the girl

and every thirteenth all of Lear
But why should a beautiful girl like you
once in English
be bothered with the thoughts of a madman
and once in German
in my own translation of course suddenly angry
The artist is a true artist only
I am the angry artist
when he is thoroughly insane
in contrast to the other
when he has thrown himself into madness
I am the horrified one
made it his method
in contrast to the other
unconditionally
no matter what the world thinks or writes directly to the girl
But he mustn’t be chicken Keep waiting my child
Of course the artist can’t be chicken The longer you wait
Society took the ground from under my feet the more beautiful you get
when it took the stage away from me
and the senators put me on trial to himself
and ruined my life It is a fairy tale
but my artistry was not damaged A fairy tale it is
by this atrocity
on the contrary looks out into the lobby, then to the girl
but what an effort my child The artistic director
vehemently is an old friend of mine
we went to school together
Being an artist He’s been artistic director
in my sister’s attic in Dinkelsbühl for twenty years already
Never a question Frisian you understand
whether such and such is legal or not Frisian
never he is a Frisian
Every day brings new evidence Do you know how small Dinkelsbühl is
of the depravity the shamelessness One can tell I’ve been living in
the irresponsibility of people Dinkelsbühl
who call themselves human society for thirty years
Mankind escapes daily
into classic literature checks himself from head to toe
because classic literature leaves it This is how one looks
undisturbed after thirty years of Dinkelsbühl
as well as classic painting These old trousers
and classic music this old coat
It makes you vomit these old shoes
Among the classics society is among its own
to the girl’s face
undisturbed
But an artist has to resist Don’t go to Dinkelsbühl
such shameless procedures not to Dinkelsbühl

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

softly to the girl

You love him don’t you Do you have any brothers or sisters
How old is he
girl
girl
Yes
Seventeen
minetti
minetti
Brothers
Seventeen
girl
When I was seventeen
Two brothers
I started to get involved
with Shakespeare minetti
Not Lear
Where do they live
but at eighteen
I already played Lear girl
already at eighteen
In Lüttich
If your boyfriend is seventeen
he has plans minetti
big plans
In that ugly town Lüttich
Is he from Ostend
It’s nice to have brothers
girl nods I had a brother
he is buried in Lübeck
minetti firmly
every year I went
Don’t leave Ostend to his grave
All my savings to the place
went into this trip where he is buried
I couldn’t pay But not for the last thirty years
for the return trip
suddenly agitated
A group of laughing, screaming people
They drove me out of Lübeck
(revelers who can’t be seen) pass through
once
the lobby
and for all
People survive this day
quotes from Lear
getting drunk
putting on masks Thou wert better in a grave
For the longest time than to answer with thy uncover’d body
I’ve been staring at the door
girl turns up the transistor radio
but he isn’t coming
It’s a tragedy
quotes Lear
that I came to Ostend
Thou wert better in a grave I left without a word
than to answer with thy uncover’d body They’ll be looking for me

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

The South of Germany is awful pacing up and down

but the North with Lear
is even worse
The storm gets stronger
Did I tell you Ensor promised me
a mask for Prospero until I would get an offer
If I play Prospero to play Lear
I said to him in a real theater
Prospero until I’d be asked to play Lear on stage
I should have played Prospero Art deteriorates easily my child
if the artist weakens
points to the lobby
wavers
A storm is coming up if he weakens just for a moment

There in that corner vehemently

Ensor promised me the mask for Prospero
Don’t weaken my child
I said
Don’t weaken
I had time
Bear the ridicule
Maybe in twenty years
bear the derision
I said
For thirty years I was reviled
Lear now
and ridiculed
Prospero in twenty years
in Dinkelsbühl
twenty years after Lear
Prospero gets up and turns his right, then his left
But Ensor is dead coat pocket inside out
I never played Prospero
I lost it
I only dreamed
the telegram
of playing Prospero
the proof
In Dinkelsbühl I always dreamed
The offer to play Lear
of playing Prospero
at the bicentennial
dreaming in the attic
in Flensburg
in Dinkelsbühl
my child looks at the door
Thirty years Suddenly we are obsessed
getting up by an idea
stepping in front of the mirror and we pursue this idea
playing Lear and we can’t do anything else
People said I was crazy but follow this idea
girl turns the transistor radio down listens
But I thought to the girl
those people were crazy Do you hear the storm
Again and again Lear Lear Lear The sea rages
While they had already declared me crazy how the sea rages

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
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

a blizzard minetti
a tempest in Ostend my child
Don’t leave Ostend
A group of masked revelers enter through
girl shakes her head
the lobby, laughing, screaming; some stop
in front of minetti Don’t leave Ostend
not Ostend
first reveler pointing his bottle at minetti
after a pause
That man has been waiting for two hours
already I shouldn’t have gone
for the artistic director to Dinkelsbühl

second reveler softly

Says the hotel clerk I didn’t dare to leave

For thirty years
third reveler
I was afraid
And the lady in red always afraid
to lose my lines
first
That I wouldn’t be able
So he says to play Lear anymore

second sits down next to the girl and looks at the

suitcase
So he says
We stayed together
third
for thirty years
So she says this suitcase and I
A conspiracy
All laugh loudly, exit
gets up and walks over to the suitcase,
minetti shaking with anger, calling after them opens it, takes out a newspaper, then sits
down again next to the girl and reads to
Outrageous
her from the paper
outrageous
Minetti, the ousted Artistic Director
very softly
left Lübeck today
outrageous The citizens sigh with relief
girl turns the transistor radio down folds the paper, gets up, stuffs it into the
suitcase, closes the suitcase with the help of
The insolence of these people
his right knee, and sits down again next to
knows no bounds
the girl, looking at his watch
Classless society
has gone mad Eleven o’clock
sits down on the sofa exhausted girl turns up the transistor radio and asks
girl turns the transistor radio up


THE30.1-05Minetti@AK 2/8/00 6:11 PM Page 87
Do you like music
minetti stretches out his legs
After a while he nods
lady enters from the lobby, almost in a marching
step, but not quite drunk, head held up high she
passes minetti and the girl as she says
Good night sir
Sleep well
she is followed by a waiter carrying a tray
with two bottles of champagne
minetti looks after the two, then laughs
I like music
very much
The boyfriend appears in the bar, the
girl jumps up and runs toward him, they
kiss, the girl notices that she left the tran-
sistor radio on the sofa and wants to pick
it up. Instead, she turns it louder, goes back
to her boyfriend, looks back at minetti
one more time, then both exit
minetti, with his legs stretched out, his
eyes closed, thinking, listening.
Epilogue
Atlantic coast near Ostend. minetti on a bench.
His suitcase in front of him. The snowstorm is
getting stronger and stronger. The crippled
man in the dog’s mask enters SR, limps with
increasing speed past minetti and disappears to
the left
minetti looking after the crippled man, then,
after a while to himself
Gone

Gets up, looks around to make sure no one
is watching, then opens the suitcase, takes
out the Lear mask, closes the suitcase
again, again he needs the help of his right
knee, again he looks around to make sure
no one is watching, sits down again, puts
the Lear mask next to him on the bench.
He takes a small silver box from his left
coat pocket, takes several pills from the box
and swallows them very quickly. Then, as
quickly, he puts on the Lear mask by
Ensor, turns up his coat collar, puts his
hands into his coat pockets and sits there
like that for a while, staring straight
ahead. Then he says
Gone quickly
From SL a group of masked revelers
approaches, the same group that passed
him earlier in the bar, now more drunk,
laughing and screaming loudly, they move
past him.
the last masked reveler stops for a
moment, recognizes minetti and points his
index finger at him, screaming
The artist
The performing artist
he runs off
minetti stays, motionless, until he is
completely covered with snow
End of play.
