The Ignoramus and the Madman 

by Thomas Bernhard

EXPERIMENTAL STAGE (-1

A great opera diva is to sing MozartΆs Magic Flute for the two hundred and twenty second time.
Exhausted by the discipline she has imposed on herself, and tired of repeatedly exposing herself to the opinion of the critics and the public, she decides to cancel her planned engagements and withdraws with her blind father to the countryside. He however, alcoholic and avaricious, has invested all his hopes in his daughterΆs singing career.

With them is a coroner, who is passionate about human anatomy, but indifferent to human existence.

What is the effect on an artist of perfectionism, narrow specialisation, excessive concentration and strict self-restraint?
Art, science, and even the parent-child relationship prove insufficient and detrimental to the fulfilment of human needs. Bernhard transforms medicine into a science of decay and music into an art of depersonalisation and destruction
The great Austrian writer employs a grotesque, bitter humour to underline the existential angst of his characters. A fierce comedy about the tragedy of art, science and parental manipulation.

Many thanks to Erato Pissi for her unfailing support.

“Thomas Bernhard, Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige, in: ders., Werke. Band 15 © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2004.“

First performance: 12/02/2016
Last performance: 06/03/2016

• Translation Giorgos Depastas
  
• Direction Giannos Perlegas
  
• Sets and costumes Loukia Houliara
  
• Movement Dimitra Efthimiopoulou
  
• Assistant set designer Georgia Boura
  
• Make-up design Evi Zafeiropoulou
  
• Hair design Hronis Tzimos
  

Cast:

• Queen of the Night Anthi Efstratiadou
  
• Mrs Vargo/Winter the Waiter Giannis Kapeleris
  
• Father Christos Malakis
  
• Doctor Giannos Perlegas