Thomas Bernhard Machine

Christoph Grissemann (vocals), Manfred Engelmayr (electric guitar), and David Reumüller (drums) take Bernhard’s work seriously—while simultaneously pulling it out of its literary comfort zone.

Repetition, linguistic rhythm, polemic: everything that defines Bernhard’s prose becomes a musical structure here. The stage becomes an amplifier for his unmistakable tone. Grissemann slips into shifting roles: at times as a grim frontman delivering dark passages with a somber timbre, at others as a Bernhard impersonator in a café on Mallorca—inspired by the legendary television monologues recorded in 1981 by Krista Fleischmann and Wolfgang Koch. In this interplay between profundity and absurdity, between genuine quotation and invented pose, seriousness and satire blur in a highly entertaining way.

Thomas Bernhard Machine is neither a reading nor a concert, neither a tribute nor a parody—it is an evening of boundary-crossing. Spoken word meets noise, literature meets groove. Bernhard is not explained, but felt.

• Christoph Grissemann – vocals
• Manfred Engelmayr – electric guitar
• David Reumüller – drums

Christoph Grissemann is an Austrian cabaret artist, author, actor, and TV and radio host. Together with Dirk Stermann, he has formed the multi-award-winning satire duo Stermann & Grissemann since the 1990s, known for their dark humor, critical satire, and unconventional stage performances. He achieved cult status with the FM4 radio show “Salon Helga” and, starting in 2007, as co-host of the successful late-night show “Willkommen Österreich” (ORF 1), which has since become a fixture of Austrian television culture.

Manfred Engelmayr is a Viennese musician, composer, and performer specializing in experimental music, noise, avant-garde rock, and sound art. For over two decades, he has shaped the Austrian music scene—both as a solo artist and through projects such as BULBUL, Raumschiff Engelmayr, and numerous collaborations in the fields of theater, performance, and visual arts.

Engelmayr consistently works at the intersection of analog brutality and conceptual precision. In 2025, he received the City of Vienna Award.

David Reumüller is a drummer, singer, visual artist, and cultural activist. As a member of the sludge band Reflector, as well as an installation artist, filmmaker, and curator, he shapes the Austrian music and art landscape. As a cultural figure and author, Reumüller also contributed to the Rockarchiv Steiermark, published the anthology Rockmusik in der Steiermark bis 1975 in 2010, and curated exhibitions as part of the Diagonale festival as well as the pop music exhibition “POP 1900–2000.” In 2021, he received the City of Graz Art Promotion Award for his diverse art projects.

The event is made possible with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum and the International Thomas Bernhard Society.