The Histrionic at Malthouse Theatre

Hell hath no fury like an actor ignored… Meet Bruscon: national treasure, intellect nonpareil, and finest living actor to grace the stage.But what happens when a talent that knows no bounds is dropped into a tiny hamlet more notable for the number of local pigs than its appreciation of the theatre?Playwright Thomas Bernhard, himself a relentless self-mythologiser and one of the great writers of the twentieth century, takes no prisoners in this rampage of satire on art, celebrity and the cult of personality.In Bruscon is crystallised the artist whose head won’t fit through doors — an ego that has outgrown reality itself. But beneath the wit lies the profound concern about how such monsters are created, and why their excesses provide us with an endless, grotesque fascination even while we abhor them.Director Daniel Schlusser shapes this wry drama around the protean genius of Bille Brown while the inimitable Barry Otto’s beleaguered innkeeper attempts to meet Bruscon’s absurd demands.