About the work
“Selbstbezichtigung” (Self-Accusation) is a speech play (Sprechstück) by Peter Handke, written in Graz at the end of 1965 as a commission for the edition suhrkamp volume “Publikumsbeschimpfung und andere Sprechstücke”; its working title was “Beichte” (Confession). It premiered on 22 October 1966 at the Städtische Bühnen Oberhausen, together with the speech play “Weissagung” and directed by Günther Büch.
Plot
There is no plot and there are no roles in the usual sense. Originally conceived for a young man and a young woman, the speakers make an extensive confession in front of the audience. Formulas of church confession are crossed with legal phrasing and trivial statements, and sentence by sentence a catalogue emerges of commandments and rules that a person can hardly avoid breaking over the course of a life.
Cultural significance
The piece is regarded as a counterpart to “Offending the Audience”: instead of attacking the spectators, it makes them the highest authority before which the speakers answer for themselves. It belongs to the early language-critical works with which Handke challenged theatrical conventions in the 1960s.