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the Complete Review
the complete review - various



cake & prostheses

by
Gerhard Rühm


general information | our review | links | about the author

To purchase cake & prostheses


Title: cake & prostheses
Author: Gerhard Rühm
Genre: various
Written: 2017/2019 (Eng. 2024)
Length: 196 pages
Original in: German
Availability: cake & prostheses - US
cake & prostheses - UK
cake & prostheses - Canada
drei personen wollen guter laune sein - Deutschland
hero liest grillparzer - Deutschland
from: Bookshop.org (US)
directly from: Twisted Spoon Press
  • minidramas and short prose
  • German titles: drei personen wollen guter laune sein and hero liest grillparzer. leander lernt schwimmen. / kuchen und prothesen.
  • Translated by Alexander Booth
  • With several illustrations and score-versions of the original texts by the author

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Our Assessment:

B+ : good fun, and a nice variety of pieces

See our review for fuller assessment.



The complete review's Review:

       cake & prostheses collects two volumes of texts by Gerhard Rühm.

       The first section, three people seeking a good mood (a translation of drei personen wollen guter laune sein) offers a variety of 'mini dramas'. These are indeed miniatures, all fairly short, with the opening series of 'aphoristic scenes' especially so, though a few of even these, including the title piece of the collection, also extend over several pages. They are stage-scenes, simple playlets -- some of them beautifully succinct:

nature study

curtain rises.
defloration.
curtain falls.
       The action tends to be (described as) limited: not much happens -- but there is some sort of action or activity. Occasionally, it is dramatic -- but that's all there is to it:
flower piece

curtain rises.
in the middle of the stage a little side table. on it a vase filled with water in which there is a bouquet of flowers. for a good while nothing happens.
suddenly (from the backdrop) the vase is shot.
curtain falls.
       Or even:
presence

light:
2.9 seconds !
dark
       Several of the aphoristic scenes do go on for longer, and some include a variety of exchanges between performers -- though tending also towards the aphoristic, anecdotal, or jokey, with, for example, the three characters from 'three people seeking a good mood' sharing short jokes:
the man on the left:
"imagine, yesterday i'm at the races, next to the track, i bend over to tie a shoelace, a jockey comes over and saddles me."
"and ?"
"I came in second."

the woman:
frau moser is letting her maidservant go: "i am very sorry, but, among other things, we have gotten a vacuum cleaner that will replace you."
the maidservant replies: "that will be quite an adjustment for your husband."
       The playing of the piano, and music more generally, are integrated into several of the pieces -- and some of Rühm's original scores are presented as well (helpful, too, in also providing the original German text to some of the bits), such as the chanson 'feeling blue' ('stimmungstief') at the conclusion of the playlet 'coffee klatch'.
       The second set of pieces presents: 'lunar theater' -- a preface explaining:
the lunar pieces are intended for four astronaut performers. they are to be broadcast live by terrestrial television stations in various time slots.
       These, too, are very short, the touch of the absurd found throughout the volume heightened in these by the setting (and the costuming one of course associates with astronauts).
       Three 'puppet plays' each come with the original (handwritten) musical scores, as well as several illustrations. The 'cutlery play' -- described as being: "for table theater" -- features actual cutlery (and the directions: "the objects can be held by black-gloved hands (arms in black leotard) or from above by (nylon) cords"); it also comes with a note at the end, explaining Rühm's interest in: "writing theatrical pieces specifically for objects (of daily use)" and how he came to write this one. In the other two puppet plays -- the final one is 'chamber play for brooms' --, Rühm also provides some explanation as to staging and plot.
       Two 'erotic pantomimes' are somewhat more elaborate pieces, but without dialogue (though a singer opens the first with an adaptation of "schubert's goethe lied 'versunken'" -- with the locks in question now those of pubic hair, as the focus of the piece ('delilah and samson') is on, as the alternate title has it, 'the magical triangle').
       Another pantomime is 'the bremen town musicians', also presented with a score of sort, though, given the piece's description -- "a children's pantomime with animal noises" -- there is no actual music: "whatever happens acoustically -- apart from unavoidable background noise -- is limited to the animal voices alone". Two more playlets are also more elaborate, with 'pompes funèbres meyerbeer' resembling a more traditional stage-piece.

       The second section, hero reads grillparzer / leander learns to swim -- "a classic love story" -- is a six-day story that, after a prologue of sorts proceeds from Monday through Saturday, presenting an excerpt from a guide on how to swim (complete with illustrations) on the one hand (and page) and a narrative on the other(s), in which convent-novice hero (so the name of the protagonist) goes through a volume of Franz Grillparzer's play The Waves of the Sea and of Love ("otherwise known as simply hero and leander") picked from the convent-library. Hero struggles some with the Grillparzer, but certainly learns something by the end .....
       The final section of the book, cake & prostheses, offers: "two dozen short prose texts" -- twelve from early in Rühm's career (from 1949 to 1956) and twelve recent one (from 2018). The contrasts are less stark than one might expect -- not least in Rühm consistently writing without capitalization as well as in the compactness of the pieces.

       It's a fun collection, especially in the creative stage-experiments. Rühm is not unserious, but there is a humorous edge to many of the pieces -- and quite a few are quite erotically charged as well. There's nice variety here, too, making for a good sampler of Rühm's work and language-play (with music often playing a prominent role in both).

- M.A.Orthofer, 24 July 2025

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Links:

cake & prostheses: Other books of interest under review:

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About the Author:

       Austrian author Gerhard Rühm was born in 1930.

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© 2025 the complete review

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