Nicholas Ofczarek & Tamara Metelka: The Austrian State Prize by Thomas Bernhard

The gifted acting duo reconstructs a literary Big Bang from 1968: an award ceremony, a scandal, a country in turmoil. As a staged reading, it unfolds a pointed, humorous study of art, power, and Austrian sensibilities. He was the most controversial Austrian writer of the last century. His plays were scandals and great successes, as they held a mirror to Austrian sentimentality and historical amnesia. His award-winning novels, with their precise exaggerations and musical repetitions, depict vast landscapes of the soul in decay. Thomas Bernhard was one of the most revered and the most vilified poets of the Republic. That he was also an exceedingly critical, contentious contemporary is evidenced, among other things, by his autobiographical notes "My Awards."

The acting couple Tamara Metelka and Nicholas Ofczarek reads the probably funniest text of the collection, "The Austrian State Prize," and reconstructs the sensational award ceremony that made headlines and wrote literary history. When Bernhard was awarded the State Prize, he already perceived it as a perfidious insult – it was, after all, the so-called small State Prize, intended for young talents. After what he considered an incompetent laudation by the minister, he essentially launched a counterattack in his acceptance speech.

Tamara Metelka, the head of the Max Reinhardt Seminar, and Burgtheater star Nicholas Ofczarek read Bernhard's account of the award ceremony – supplemented by quotes from his works that illuminate his literary references and deepen the understanding of his political stance. The scandalous acceptance speech will also be heard.

Thomas Bernhard: My Awards, Suhrkamp, 2010.