130. “The Athelete”

Play in three acts by Hermann Bahr
Performance at the Lessing Theater, Berlin

Of Hermann Bahr's theatrical attempts, this is the best. However, it is still not quite right. An Austrian baron is, as they say, out of his element. He has his own ideas and principles. This does not mean much other than that he is relatively reasonable compared to the other members of his aristocratic kin. That is why he is considered an eccentric by these others. He married, not out of passionate love for his wife, but - well, because he married. That is the characteristic of the whole "Athlete", that one remains without any "why". The man works diligently together with his wife. Their common duties made them worthy of each other. She is what one calls an impeccable woman. But she betrays her husband. Why? Yes, because Bahr likes it that way. The man finds out about it. He is contrite at first. He wants to fight the seducer. His brother is to initiate the matter. When he arrives, the good man realizes the ridiculousness of the attitude on which the duel is based among his relatives in such cases. He gives up the duel. He cannot forgive the woman, but he will continue to devote himself to his common duties with her.

The whole thing is a collection of dramatized apergus that Bahr has made about life. Disjointed, unmotivated, moody, Bahrian. This man has a very distinctive intellectual idiosyncrasy. You can study it in particular in his critical remarks. He has a self-invented theory of knowledge. It is well known that you can think a lot about how something you claim to be true is true. One person cites this, another that. Bahr always has only one reason why he claims something to be true. That is that it has just occurred to him.