Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker
Radio Play and Discussion
The pioneers of experimental poetry Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker discovered the possibilities of sound poetry for the radio in the audio piece Fünf Mann Menschen. In a word play of only 14 minutes’ length, the listener gets a time-lapse view of an entire life from cradle to grave. The production went beyond all rules and helped with the New Audio Play’s breakthrough. This was followed in 1977 by Die Humanisten, a politically poignant culmination of Jandl’s work. Author Hermann Bohlen and critic Jochen Meißner comment and trace the connections to the present.