Am Ziel

• The mother
• The daughter
• A dramatic writer
• A girl

At the destination is a play by Thomas Bernhard from the year 1981.

Action

In the play the mother, her daughter and a " dramatic writer " occur. Mother and daughter are busy preparing their journey to the holiday home by the sea. Rather, it is only the daughter who is involved in the preparations, while the mother, meanwhile, her marriage to a cast owners, reflected her relationship with her daughter and the role of the theater. The writer who has been invited by the mother to ride, arrives at the house. After a ride on the railway mother, daughter and the dramatic writers come at the destination, the Cottage on the sea, on. In this threesome constellation opens to a dialogue on the role of theater and its transformative power between mother and poet. On the other hand, the poet explores the relationship with her daughter.

Interpretation

The assessment of their marriage and their son Richard the mother are relentlessly. Richard is called " ugly child ". The choice fell on her husband only because of its goods possession. The relationship with the daughter of pathogenic egomania marked ("I have brought you to me in the world "). The mother is representative of the past and on behalf of Bernard's description of the rebellion of '68 against the parental generation ( "We have the history that has placed us in the way smashed and out of the ruins made ​​a new story "). The daughter is the future that still remains in a self-imposed immaturity: the accusations of her mother she no obstacle, the invitation to walk on the beach of the poet she can not decide ( "I always go for a walk alone "). The poet represents the senseless success, because although his play is applauded, even though he triumphed in the virtual world of the theater, it does not matter in the real world. He, too, the relentless unmasking of the mother oppose anything, he can not organize the relationship with her daughter. Poet, mother and daughter are physically at your destination. In reality, they do not come at the destination: the daughter can be made up of the pathological relationship with her mother is not free, the poet can not put into reality his relationship with the daughter and the mother can not escape her past and her own scathing interpretation. Bernhard leaves open whether there daughter and poets manage to free themselves from their own immaturity. This would require to recognize, in which entangled situation in which they are dependent. Bernhard has succeeded with the piece, the viewer to open the eyes of his speechlessness, for its lack of freedom. He achieves this by allowing you to identify yourself depending on the role and generation with the mother, the daughter or the poet. Theater can be so contrary to his own positions taken in the piece of criticism, already making a difference, namely, the knowledge of himself, thus fulfilling the criterion for targeting is created.

Others

The piece is staffed and equipped with three women, two men, two decorations.

At the destination premiered August 18, 1981 at the Salzburg Festival with Marianne Hoppe in the lead role, directed by Claus Peymann. The German premiere was on 22 October 1981 at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, directed also Peymann.

In 2008, the piece at the Munich Residenz Theater under Thomas Langhoff was restaged with Cornelia Froboess as a mother.