The Voice of the Playwright

Postoperative Texts by Heiner Müller

About

Description

One of Müllers's vocal cords was paralyzed as a result of a life-saving radical operation (1995). At the beginning of the discussion Müller observes that figures from Greek mythology live on today as trademarks for products (Ajax as a cleaning agent, Polydor as a record). After that Kluge brings up various lines from Müller's poetry in a seemingly random way, followed by an interpretation of the poetic text: Berlin - the capital city of unreality, Hitler and Stalin, the Peasant Wars, Müller's self-description as a dinosaur, the tabloid as a medium of tragedy, Faust, Althusser, monuments, the Russian writer Fadeew. In between these discussions Müller reads his poem "AJAX, for example." The discussion ends with Müller's attempts at rehabilitation after the operation. He is training his voice with the help of a speech therapist. He wants to resume his work at the Berlin Ensemble only after he is able to speak loudly again.