Süskind, Patrick - The Double Bass

The Double Bass (Der Kontrabass, 1981) by Patrick Süskind (born 1949) is a one-man play centered on a frustrated orchestral musician whose oversized instrument becomes a symbol of his personal and emotional confinement. Through a darkly comic monologue, the protagonist exposes his loneliness, thwarted ambitions, and unfulfilled love, turning the double bass into a projection of modern alienation. Both intimate and universally resonant, the play is a sharp, melancholic parable of the inner turmoil of contemporary life.