About the work
Peter Handke's wordless play was premiered in 1992 at the Vienna Festwochen and ranks among the most radical experiments of contemporary drama. The work consists exclusively of stage directions — no dialogue, no spoken word. Against the backdrop of a public square, more than 400 figures pass by in barely two hours, each with a brief story of its own. Handke calls it a stage direction in book form.
Plot
An indeterminate public square, somewhere in Europe. People move across the stage in a continuous stream: business people, lovers, tourists, the homeless, children, the elderly, mourners, drunks, workers, historical figures, mythological beings. Some meet for seconds, others pass by alone. There is no central plot, only the choreography of human coming and going. Events arise and vanish: an accident, a quarrel, a picnic, a death. The play ends with the slow onset of dusk and the emptying of the square.
Cultural significance
Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wussten is regarded as a key work of post-dramatic theatre and has inspired generations of directors. Luc Bondy's premiere at the Vienna Burg, with 270 figures, became a legendary theatrical evening. Claus Peymann, Lars-Ole Walburg and Jossi Wieler have staged the play in their own readings. The work challenges director and ensemble to the point of physical exhaustion and poses a fundamental question of dramaturgy: does theatre even need language to generate meaning? Handke answers with a clear no.