Life and Career
Bauer was born in Graz, Styria. His breakthrough play was Magic Afternoon in 1967, in which he portrays four youths who interrupt their lazy and boring afternoon by unmotivated outbreaks of violence and aggression (Magic Afternoon was adapted for the screen most recently by Catherine Jelski in 2000 as The Young Unknowns). After two more successes, Change (1969) and Gespenster (Ghosts, 1973), Bauer's plays became increasingly surreal and experimental. Bauer though resisted any labelling by academia and critics alike until his death. Most of his plays during 1967 and 1990 were translated into English by Martin Esslin, remembered for coining the term Theatre of the Absurd. In the late 1970s and early 1980s San Francisco's Magic Theatre performed almost each season a play of Bauer, 1993 his play Tadpoletigermosquitos at Mulligan's was premiered at New York's Ohio Theatre.
Wolfgang Bauer was a heavy smoker and drinker. After a series of cardiac operations, he died in his native Graz of heart failure.
Read more about this topic: Wolfgang Bauer (writer)
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