General Information

The theatrical spectacle Alma, after a text by Israeli author Joshua Sobol, is a journey through Alma Mahler’s life, staged as a "polydrama", with various plot elements running in parallel. It is more than a theatre play, it is an act of watching lives being lived, the life of enchantress and devourer of genius. It’s theatre that smells of life itself.

Alma Mahler, born Schindler, later Gropius, later Werfel - lover and life partner of some of the leading artists of her day, including Oskar Kokoschka, Gustav Klimt, Alexander Zemlinsky. Muse, mistress and termagant. She claimed to provide a "leg-up" - for the best in every man: "Every genius is simply one more perfect feather for my nest."

Alma, eternally tempting woman, was known as the "widow of the four arts". Posthumously, she has even conquered a fifth art: theatre. "Alma”, the play, has created a monument to her which is indeed "entirely worthy of his predecessors” (Süddeutsche review).

"Alma" is the act of eavesdropping on a love life. The play creates not just atmosphere but also extremely intimate moments - although, or indeed because, the audience is right up close to the performers, literally coming into bodily contact with them on the sofas and armchairs of the salons.

Simultaneous theatre offers both want and abundance; who should you follow? Where should you go first? Follow one Alma into the bedroom to find Gropius, where you are voyeur to their intimacies, or perhaps better go down into the kitchen, where another Alma is haring about with Gustav Mahler? Outside, Werfel flees to Palestine in a truck, together with a group of spectators; up in his studio, the wild Kokoschka falls passionately upon his beloved. Four Almas are at disposal, with an aged diva on top, who - having returned from the dead - invites all those present to a party, and her three younger incarnations.

As you follow them, you are able to assemble the pieces of Alma's biography bit by bit - yet you never fully grasp the whole. Still you have this feeling of not seeing enough. When Gustav Mahler dies at half-time, his funeral banquet can be followed interactively to his music, and the spectators are subsequently invited to a sumptuous buffet-dinner during the interval with Austrian specialities, sweets and a special "Alma”-wine from Spain, which is part of the performance, and included in the ticket prize.

"Alma" is more than a theatre spectacle, it is a piece of theatrical fascination. A complete work of art - ingenious, sensual and full of passion.