ALMA

(November 26th, 2008: Tina Maria Feyrer, Edwin Alexander Francis & Verena Baldeo)

>>>> we are trying to get the ALMA project to Rome. >>>>>

The theatrical spectacle "Alma" is a journey through Alma Mahler's life, staged as a "polydrama", with various plot elements running in parallel. It is more than a theater play, it is an act of watching lives being lived. It's theatre that smells of life itself! It is one of the most sucessful and unusual theater performances ever to take place in Europe.

The theatrical journey about Alma Mahler’s life has reached cult status since its debut in 1996. After more than 140 performances to full audiences in Vienna the play moved to Venice, Lisbon, Los Angeles and Berlin where superlative reviews were published in the international press. On September 3rd 2008 "Alma" celebrated its 350th performance. Till this day 354 performances have been played.

A "must" for Rome!

Alma Mahler-Werfel, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel; lover of Oskar Kokoschka, Gustav Klimt, Alexander Zemlinsky and many other celebrities of the 20th century.

 "Alma" reveals an intimate picture of creative life in Europe between the wars, bringing close to the spectator the drama of a rich culture moving to its dissolution. But, above all, it is the personal story of one woman's incomparable gift for living. (

check out Alma's biography here--->

https://www.alma-mahler.com/engl/almas_life/almas_life.html

Genesis of the play.

The play, first performed in 1996 at the Vienna Festival Week and made into a film in 1999, has long since been a cult among connoisseurs. There are fans who have seen the performance a dozen times; indeed the biggest "Almaniac" boasts a total of 73 performances. Six summers long, the famous Sanatorium Purkersdorf outside Vienna served as a venue for the show, an empty Jugendstil building whose rooms had been fitted out in turn-of-the-century style. One hundred and forty performances took place there, all of them sell-outs, and in the process 23,044 candles and 2,736 torches were burnt, and at the funeral banquet in honour of Gustav Mahler the audience was treated to a vast quantity of baked chicken wings, boiled fillet of beef and Viennese apple cake, as well as 3,762 bottles of wine.

The Polydrama

«Alma» is a Polydrama and a theatrical journey in the steps of a woman, Alma Mahlergropiuskokoschkawerfel, who had travelled through the first half of the 20th century, experiencing passionate encounters and seperations with persons who enriched the human heritage. It is a Polydrama in the sense that it consists of several intervowen threads of events taking place and being acted out simultaneously in various spaces. It is a Theatrical Journey in the sense that it abandons the trodden ground of the Conflict-and-Situation based drama, to explore the possibilities of a Journey-Drama, in which the protagonist is not trapped and involved in one plot and one conflict, but is travelling along an open way, falling in and out of love with people, as they appear and disappear, intersecting for a moment the traveller's trajectory. In this concept the observer will be invited to abandon the immobilized position of the spectator of the conventional drama, to replace it with the mobile activity of a traveller. Thus the spectator will become a Road-Companion of the travelling characters of Journey-Drama, choosing the events, the path and the person to follow after each event, thus constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing her or his version of the Polydrama. (Joshua Sobol)

for more information about the performance, click on this link :  https://www.alma-mahler.com/engl/on_tour/on_tour.html  and read the 9 illustrated multimedia pages with active hyperlinks to the location and performance stills photographs

( or just read on here:)

Come and be a guest at Alma Mahler’s exclusive birthday party! Make the acquaintance of all her lovers and husbands as they appear as guests of honour: the great painter Gustav Klimt, who was the first man to kiss her, architect Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, poet Franz Werfel, author of „Jakobowsky and the Colonel“, composer Gustav Mahler, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and many others.

In pursuit of the many lives of Alma you can circulate through the whole building, its interiors fitted out superbly in period style, through rustic kitchens with steaming soup, elegant salons with grand pianos, austere bathing cellars and Italian cafés. You become a road-companion to the travelling characters of the journey drama, choosing the events, the path and the person to follow after each event, thus constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing your own personal version of the Polydrama. It is your gaze that creates the show.

You are a camera. Focus on a character who interests you and follow them. Take a journey from fin-de-siécle Vienna to World War I, from Gustav Mahler‘s funeral in Vienna to Alma‘s Venetian Palazzo. Accompany her on her honeymoon trip to Palestine, and be a road companion on her way to exile in the USA. Witness Franz Werfel‘s death in California, and sit side to side with Gustav Mahler on Sigmund Freud‘s psychoanalytical couch. Watch Alma‘s love nights with Walter Gropius in Berlin, and Oskar Kokoschka‘s desperation in Dresden, where he creates a life-size Alma doll. Everywhere, amidst hundreds of dripping candles, unfold new, astonishing scenes and arrangments.

When Gustav Mahler dies at half-time, his funeral banquet can be followed interactively to his music, and the spectators are invited to a sumptuous buffet-dinner during the interval with Austrian specialities. Various delicacies are served, including famous dishes from Alma's time, and a variety of exquisite Austrian pastries and wines from Austrian wineyards. The world-class traditional Viennese cuisine, the service, and the ambience make this "mourner’s meal" a truly memorable experience.

The painter Oskar Kokoschka was the ace of hearts among Alma’s four trump cards. Nevertheless she saw herself forced to break up with him since Kokoschka came more dangerously close to her inner being than any of her men before, or indeed after. Apart from the countless paintings which testify to this anguished relationship, there was also a saucy life–size doll, a faithful reproduction of Alma down to the most intimate details, which Kokoschka had made in 1915 in order to console himself for the loss of his loved one. The doll is destroyed at the climax of an extravagant masked ball at the end of the theatrical journey.

The 10 Commandments to enjoy "Alma"

1. "Alma" is a theatrical journey in the footsteps of a woman, Alma Mahler-Gropius-Kokoschka-Werfel, who travelled through the first half of the 20th century, experiencing passionate encounters and separations from people who enriched the body of human heritage.

2. The play consists of several interwoven threads of events taking place simultaneously in various spaces. It describes a period from 1901 to the
present day. The characters of the play guide you through times and spaces. The locations are spread all over the house.

3. Become a road companion to the characters of the play. You can
choose the events, the path and the person to follow after each scene, thus constructing your own personal version of a Polydrama.

4. It is your gaze that creates the show. Focus on an object of your interest, and follow it like a film camera. Following one object throughout the evening will transform that object into your protagonist. Yet you can change objects, and thus create a mosaic of your own.

5. As a camera you have to choose your angles of shooting, and the distance from the object on which you are focusing. You can also move and change your point of view during a take, panning and zooming in and out.

6. Cameras do not smoke. And a camera never chatters with other cameras, nor does it use a cell phone.

7. Move quickly, swiftly, and as intelligently as you can.

8. lf you find it difficult to travel, you may stay put in one space, and let the various events pass before your objective. Coherence is only one attribute of reality, and it is by no means the most interesting one.

9. If you come with another camera, it is good to split up and take footage of different events. At the end of the day you can experience the job of an
editor, and combine material taken by yourself with that of your fellow-cameras.

10. As a camera, do not try to comprehend. What you get in your objective and what you record is all there is.

On September 3rd 2008 "Alma" celebrated it’s 350th performance.

Till this day 354 performances have been played in the following cities:
1996-2001 Vienna
2002 Venice
2003 Lisbon
2004 Los Angeles
2005 Petronell
2006 Berlin
2007 Semmering
2008 Vienna

Alma-Statistics

At this 354 performances were used
164.000 candles
73.000 torch lights

the guests were served
18.220 bottels of red wine
21.800 bottles of white wine
450 barrels of beer

100.000 crispy breadcrumbed legs of poussin
70.000 apple strudels

SETTINGS & LOCATIONS

360° "Analog-Panoramas" (c) Lukas Maximilian Hueller

ALMA is an interactive stage-play with a very special party to celebrate. The theatrical journey about Alma Mahler’s life has reached cult status in Europe since its debut in 1996. After six seasons to full audiences in Vienna the play moved to Venice, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Petronell, Berlin and Semmering.

 TAKE A LOOK AT THE STILLS CONTACT SHEETS.

<------ GO TO THE "PROJECTS" SUB-PAGES

Alma @ Telegrafenamt, Vienna  + Alma @ Zenobio, Venezia

WHO'S WHO in "Alma"

FAMILY
	Emil Jakob Schindler father
	Anna von Bergen mother
	Carl Moll stepfather
	Anna Mahler daughter
	Maria Anna Mahler daughter
	Manon Gropius daughter
	Martin Carl Johannes son

LOVERS & HUSBANDS
	Gustav Klimt painter
	Alexander Zemlinsky Composer, Alma´s composition tutor & lover
	Gustav Mahler composer & Alma´s husband no. 1
	Walter Gropius architect & Alma´s husband no.2
	Oskar Kokoschka painter & Alma's lover
	Franz Werfel poet & Alma´s husband no.3
	Johannes Hollnsteiner priest & Alma´s lover

FRIENDS
	Berta Zuckerkandl Alma´s friend
	Max Burckhard Director of the Burgtheater & mentor
	Bruno Walter conductor
	Sigmund Freud psychoanalyst
	Dr. Paul Kammerer biologist & Alma´s lover
	Gerhart Hauptmann writer & Alma´s admirer
	August Hess Alma's valet
	Alban Berg composer
	Helene Berg Alban Berg´s wife
	Georg Moenius priest
	Lili Leiser Alma´s friend & financier

ENEMIES
	Justine Mahler Mahler´s sister
	Anna von Mildenburg singer & Mahler´s mistress
	Siegfried Lipiner writer & Mahler´s friend
	Hermine Moos Puppeteer in Munich
	Reserl Kokoschka´s chambermaid in Dresden
	Manon Gropius Gropius´ mother
	Romana Kokoschka Kokoschka´s mother
	Hans Martin Elster writer & National Socialist

 PRESS CORNER

• „Alma“ is more than a theater play, it is an act of watching lives being lived, the life of enchantress and devourer of genius!

• Gloriously wild and vulgar; passionate, colourful and multi-layered.

• A fantastic idea & a fantastic interpretation; a production which opens heart and senses.

• A place bewitched by fantasy, an utterly exceptional and captivating spectacle.

• A thrilling theater spectacle, from which everyone can, should, and indeed is compelled to come away with their own individual impression, which ensures a superlative evening.

• Rarely has an evening of theater ever taken such an entertaining, informative and fulfilling course. Go and experience it!

• The most unusual, most sensational theater production ever made in Austria!

• This is theater that smells of life itself

• An experience that lingers long in the mind.

• The experiential value of this 3-hour happening outshines that of most traditional theater events.

see: https://www.alma-mahler.com/index.html for all the biographies, multimedia, press corner and lots more...