The Loser

Alternative Stage founding donor 

Alternative Stage sponsor: PPC (Public Power Company)

After a successful first sold-out cycle of performances, the music theatre production The Loser, based on the novel with the same title by distinguished Austrian author Thomas Bernhard, will be revived at the GNO Alternative Stage.

The work brings to life a fictional story about one of the greatest pianists of the 20^th century, Glenn Gould, adapted and directed by the always artistically restless director, actor, and filmmaker Ektoras Lygizos.

Written in 1983 in the author’s well-known serpentine style, the novel Der Untergeher marked the German-speaking literature of the second half of the 20th century. The theatrical adaptation, based on Vassilis Tomanas’ translation, transforms the monologic narration of the original into a music-theatre piece for four voices and piano.

The legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and two Austrian former classmates of his who went through life as failed pianists, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the foyer of an abandoned hotel in Central Europe, and its owner, all compose a peculiar “oral musical” about genius, obsession and frustration.

Thomas Bernhard, Der Untergeher, in: ders., Werke 6, 1983 © Suhrkamp Verlag AG, Berlin

Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National Resources.