Passion Must Be Naked
by Karlheinz Roschitz/Krone Magazine, Vienna

The theatrical sensation from Austria is on tour at one of the most elegant palaces in Venice.

Paulus Manker is always good for sensations. Since 1996, his production Alma - A Show Biz Ans Ende has been a Viennese theatrical event year on year. Now, the theatrical magician has transferred his "Alma" to Venice.

Alma, the muse of leading figures such as Gustav Mahler, Franz Werfel or Oskar Kokoschka, was a superlative seductress: the ballroom of the Palazzo Zenobio has recently been turned into her "domain".

The atmosphere along the narrow canals of the Dorsoduro district is ghostly, and the flames of torches burn in the streets around the magnificent Palazzo Zenobio. Through the arched windows of the Palace shine sumptuously decorated, shimmering gold stuccoed ceilings. A funeral march by Gustav Mahler resounds through the night. Death in Venice: in the gondola is Mahler's corpse, being taken away for burial ...

It is the most unusual, most sensational theatre production ever made in Austria!
Director Paulus Manker is euphoric as he talks enthusiastically of his work on production of the play by Joshua Sobol, Alma - A Show Biz ans Ende, which is now famous across Europe.

The collaboration with Sobol is virtually guaranteed success; the plays "Weiningers Nacht" and "Der Vater" have already proven this. [insert missing text]
Manker is radiant: "As a warm-up and test, we invited the Venetians from the local district to attend the performance.” Turn-of-the-century Vienna and its characters fascinate everyone - Manker himself plays Alma's lover Oskar Kokoschka, who lived with Alma in Venice and painted her, Nikolaus Paryla plays Franz Werfel, Xaver Hutter is Walter Gropius, and Christoph Gareisen is Gustav Klimt. A massive success, but the fabulous Milena Vukotic, playing Alma Mahler-Werfel, has made her contribution to this too; she has a significant following from her movie and TV performances. She provides that certain je-ne-sais-quoi, the right mix: Alma needs to be half grande dame, half seductress, indeed a courtesan, a fine specimen of turn-of-the-century woman.

In any case, tickets for performances between now and 21 September are selling fast. "And the fact that we are playing the scenes in three languages - German, English and Italian - makes the play attractive to a large foreign audience."
For the Venice production, Manker and Sobol have expanded Alma's life by three new scenes: For instance, by one scene in which her three husbands - composer Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius, and poet Franz Werfel - vilify Alma, and also a wonderful love scene with Gropius, which is particularly powerful within this framework.

An element of raunchiness, such as the naked Alma in the Palace ballroom, and even bedroom scenes, form part of the production. Aren't the nude scenes a delicate issue on Italian soil? "I don't make any concessions to prudery - passion has to be naked," insists Manker categorically. "If you package love scenes like that in frills and feathers, the whole thing just becomes lewd, and all you have is 19th-century petit-bourgeois boudoir sex!"

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