Tender

Tender

The daughter is young, athletic, and well trained. She is not sure whether she likes it or not, only that it means everything to her father, how her body looks and how much power it has. “tender” is a kaleidoscope of a father-daughter relationship. It tells of growing up against the pressure of a father’s language. There is a fenced garden, a sick body, a shadow on the hot June tarmac. tender is a game of repetition and an offer: will you come with me? The play was written as part of “Drama Lab” workshop for Fabulamundi’s New Voices. 

Hannah K. Bründ 

Hannah K. Bründl is a writer of poetry, plays and prose. She studied Language Arts at the University of Applied Arts and German Language and Literature at the University of Vienna, having previously studied Comparative Literature. Hannah’s work has been published in journals and anthologies. Hannah’s scenic texts have been awarded the Munich Sponsorship Prize, the Hans Gratzer Scholarship, the Retzhofer Drama Prize and the Drachengasse Prize for Emerging Artists. In 2023 Hannah’s poetry debut Mother_s was published by roughbooks. She lives in Vienna and Berlin. Her new poetry collection schilfern will be published by Ritter in summer 2025. Her play tender, written as part of the Drama Lab at the Wiener Wortstaetten, will be premiered in 2026 in Graz, Austria. 

To be honest, I sometimes read tender with my eyes closed. Or rather, as the play got closer and closer to the intrusively awkward moments where the father was inappropriate, I kept hoping that it would stop there, that it wouldn’t get any worse, that he wouldn’t do something I would regret having to translate. Luckily for me, Hannah K. Bründl did not write a play about rape, but rather the ways that a father and daughter learn to relate to one another in a healthier way. When I asked Bründl about the title and whether this was related to this trajectory, she responded, “the title isn’t so much about the content of the play, but rather a meta-commentary, a poetic project aimed at discovering a different kind of language. I see language as a precondition for the possibility of love and wanted to explore alternative forms of speech that might enable expressions of affection and intimacy beyond traditional patriarchal structures.” The play enacts this aim through its occasional use of poetic speech, which goes against the standard dialogue form. There is dialogue and it is poignant and subtle at once. But it’s the play’s use of dancing text that is reminiscent of the sculptural poems of CAConrad that might pose a future director to pause—how do you stage a poem? Such a conundrum is also the play’s greatest opportunity. To find a new way of directing and staging this écriture feminine of the highest form should excite any person working in the theater. All of us should want to find a form for such a daring text that is, nevertheless indeed very tender. 

– Shane Anderson

 

Shane Anderson is the author of After the Oracle, Or: How The Golden State Warriors’ Four Core Values Can Change Your Life Like They Changed Mine (Deep Vellum). Published work in various forms can be found in various places. A translator of a number of contemporary German poets, he is also the translator of The Great Nowitzki (Norton). He is represented by Priscilla Posada at Regal | Hoffmann & Associates and lives in Wuppertal with his family.