Minetti

Figures

Figure 1.

All photographs are of Bernhard Minetti as Minetti in Thomas Bernhard’s Minetti, directed by Claus Peymann, Stuttgart, 1988. Photos: Hannes Kilian.

Figure 2.

All photographs are of Bernhard Minetti as Minetti in Thomas Bernhard’s Minetti, directed by Claus Peymann, Stuttgart, 1988. Photos: Hannes Kilian.

Figure 3.

All photographs are of Bernhard Minetti as Minetti in Thomas Bernhard’s Minetti, directed by Claus Peymann, Stuttgart, 1988. Photos: Hannes Kilian.

Figure 4.

All photographs are of Bernhard Minetti as Minetti in Thomas Bernhard’s Minetti, directed by Claus Peymann, Stuttgart, 1988. Photos: Hannes Kilian.

Figure 5.

All photographs are of Bernhard Minetti as Minetti in Thomas Bernhard’s Minetti, directed by Claus Peymann, Stuttgart, 1988. Photos: Hannes Kilian.

Figure 6.

All photographs are of Bernhard Minetti as Minetti in Thomas Bernhard’s Minetti, directed by Claus Peymann, Stuttgart, 1988. Photos: Hannes Kilian.

Characters

MINETTI, a performing artist

A LADY

A GIRL

THE GIRL’S BOYFRIEND

HOTEL CLERK

PORTER

AN OLD, LIMPING MAN

AN OLD COUPLE

A MIDGET

A DRUNK

A CRIPPLED MAN

A WAITER

MASKED REVELERS

Setting

  First, second, and third scene: an old hotel in Ostend, Belgium

  Epilogue: Atlantic coast nearby

Scene One

  Lobby

  An old English elevator SL

  SR the reservation desk, behind it the HOTEL CLERK leafing through old hotel brochures

  In the back an old sofa, an old LADY (dressed in red) sitting on it, drinking and smoking Virginia cigars

  A PORTER enters SR with a huge old suitcase, he puts it down in front of the HOTEL CLERK’s desk

HOTEL CLERK looking up

What’s that

PORTER whispering

A funny old man

  HOTEL CLERK and PORTER look in the direction from where he PORTER just entered with the huge suitcase

LADY drinks, then to the HOTEL CLERK

Getting through this
Alone
Don’t forget my champagne
Two bottles if necessary
I want to drink it alone
alone

  laughs and looks in the same direction as the others

it doesn’t matter really
I have to brace myself you know

  with emphasis

Brace myself
The world’s filled
with lunatics
unbelievable
The decadence is typical

  to the HOTEL CLERK

A blizzard
a real blizzard

  in the direction the others are looking

Then I’ll put on my mask
I can deal with New Year’s Eve
I’ve got my method

  drinks

I’ll go to bed with my monkey mask
and wait
monkey mask over my face over my head
the whole bottle of champagne all at once
It’s the third year now
that I do New Year’s Eve that way

  as if she is observing a strange person

two bottles if need be
a ruse of course
flirtation with suffocation
a perversity
I got fatter
the monkey mask stitched together
three times already

  drinks

stitched together
Hands folded below the monkey mask
But not at home
at the hotel
you know
here in this hotel

  as if to instruct herself

Make it to eleven
then upstairs
to your room
mask on
champagne finished
and into bed
Head masked
Legs stockinged

  laughs out loud

And if it doesn’t work
another bottle of champagne

  drinks and looks at the suitcase, then back again in the opposite direction

The gentleman no doubt
who comes with the suitcase

MINETTI enters in an old ankle-length winter coat, black patent leather shoes, spats, carrying a wide-rimmed hat and umbrella on his left arm. The drawstring from his underpants hangs down to the floor as he walks slowly, looking in all directions, to the center of the lobby and says to the HOTEL CLERK

Minetti

  takes a change purse from his coat pocket and looks for appropriate change, finds it, wants to hand it to the PORTER by quickly holding out to him his hand with the coin, but the PORTER doesn’t move

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