After two more successes, Change (1969) and Gespenster (Ghosts, 1973), Bauer's plays became increasingly surreal and experimental.
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 a play of Bauer's almost every season.
After a series of cardiac operations, he died in his native Graz of heart failure.
His friend, the composer Kurt Schwertsik wrote Ein Kleines Requiem partly for him.