The concept of private languages holds that each person's words are symbols with which he identifies certain of his perceptions. Language operates in the public sphere only so long as the symbols used by a speaker to denote his perceptions roughly correspond to the symbols the listener uses for his perceptions. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that the concept of private language is logically absurd. His argument, in brief, was that it is impossible for a person to maintain any series of symbols corresponding to his perceptions as there is no way for such a series to be accurately maintained. The Austrian playwright Peter Handke seems to believe and support this argument in his plays. An examination of five plays shows Handke exploring various situations which are created by words in context, the central point being to expose to the audience the fact that plays are neither make-believe nor reenactments; they are events occurring only here now. (TS)