SOURCE: A review of Vor dem Ruhestand, in World Literature Today, Vol. 55, No. 1, Winter, 1981, p. 92.

In the following negative assessment of Vor dem Ruhestand, Acker contends the play reinforces several of Bernhard’s recurring themes and stylistic techniques.

At first glance it might appear that Thomas Bernhard has written a drama [Vor dem Ruhestand] that is vastly different from his previous contributions to this genre, for the play is a direct allusion to recent political events centering around the former Minister President of Baden-Württemberg. It is set in the concrete milieu of contemporary Germany and seems to take a committed stance against aberrations in the West German political system. Yet a sublayer of ideas emerges which remains consistent with the pattern Bernhard has established in his other nine plays.

Each year on the 7th of October Rudolf Höller, a chief judge, dresses up in his old...