From the production of his first dramas in the early 1970s until his death in 1989, Thomas Bernhard was one of the most prominent and controversial playwrights composing for the German-language theater. His grimly comic works for the stage confront the audience with death, madness, hatred, contempt, and disease. The role of plot, character, and psychology in his dramas is thin; Bernhard concentrates his gift on language. He was a virtuoso in his unique and highly musical prose style, which, though it was more dependent on charismatic stage performers than most theatrical idioms, earned him a substantial international reputation in Europe. Virtuosity of language is all that remains of the dramatic art in Bernhard's vision of the stage. The more humane aspects of theater and acting are allowed to wither: "die Schauspieler müssen Talent haben und müssen eine Maschine sein" (the actors have to have...