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"MAHLER"
A Play in Two Parts
Maurice Rowdon
Portslade Productions Ltd.,
5, Tamworth Road,
London, S. W.6.


CHARACTERS
GUSTAV MAHLER
ALMA MAHLER


SCENE
The scene is divided into areas which can be lighted into
existence.
'Left' and 'right' in the directions are from the audience's
point of view.
Downstage left there is the personal area, with a table
covered with scores, easy chairs and a chaise longue.
Upstage right a wide staircase leads up to a great Roman
arch - this will represent the entrance to public life, the Vienna
State Opera house, concerts etc. Lights beyond the arch (where
other steps descend out of sight) give it at different times a
mellow or a forbidding or a glaringly hostile appearance, accord-
ing to the requirements of the script.
The space upstage of the personal area is raked and will
be used to suggest outdoors.
The action does not always follow a straight chronological
development. ALMA particularly is called on to speak from
different periods of her life - to be the woman who remembers
(in her forties) as well as the woman remembered (in her
twenties); and she is seen at her death at the age of 85. GUSTAV
is seenb between his 44th and 51st year (the year of his death) And at
times they are speaking to each other long after their deaths.
GUSTAV MAHLER was born in 1860 and died in 1911.
ALMA MAHLER was born in 1879 and died in 1964.


PART ONE
GUSTAV MAHLER is simultaneously
getting into tails and composing. One
operation is at the expense of the other:
he is tangled in his jacket, one arm in
the sleeve and one not, tranquilly
writing, bent over the table from a
standing position. He is totally con-
centrated.
GUSTAV MAHLER, in his middle age,
is small, pale and thin, with a rather
long face and an unusually steep fore-
head. His hair is intensely black, his
eyes strikingly aware and penetrating
behind their spectacles, which give
them an extra severe look. He has an
irregular way of walking - he tends to
stamp his feet, to stop suddenly and
then rush forward headlong again:
something is always pulling or halting
or propelling him, it seems.
ALMA MAHLER appears from the right
teand stands watching him with awe. She
sa 1
is twenty, taller than he and fair. She
already has something of the wonder-
2 Je
fully self-assured magnificence of the
L & C - V
later years.
Tou
214 wo
trye.
ALMA:
He's the director of the Vienna State Opera and I'm
his wife! I touch him! I kiss him! feel his breath
on my hair! Cabbies recognise him in the street.
And he's old enough to be my father, which I don't
care about because no man my age could be that
successful. It takes a lifetime to build an empire.
Look at the funny blind way he does everything.
(as MAHLER begins strolling round, searching for
another phrase in his mind, his tails still hanging
on him)
GUSTAV:
(subsiding into a chair) Yes!
ALMA:
I don't mean money. Though I don't despise money.
Anyway, he hasn't got much. What I mean by
success is -
(He begins writing, and a suggestion
of 'Alma's theme' steals over the
speakers - that is, a sound representa I
tion of MAHLER 'thinking towards' the


second subject in the first movement of
the Sixth Symphony. The entire sound
decor of the play is in this form of
uncompleted musical thoughts)
ALMA:
Gustav!
(contd)
That's what I mean!
MAHLER:
(suddenly looking up as the music fades) You don't
mind ifI don't give you a wedding ring do you?
ALMA:
(with great disappointment) No!
MAHLER:
I think it's bad taste. I mean we're already
married - always have been -
ALMA:
Spiritually, you mean.
MAHLER:
With the whole of us - not just spiritually - with the
whole of our destinies!
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
And you can't seal that with a ring. I hate the idea.
(suddenly looking at her again) You don't care for
rings do you?
ALMA:
Oh no!
(He concentrates on his music again)
(to herself I adore rings!
(He begins dressing for a concert.
Ideas constantly interf fere with this and
he gets tangled up in his sleeve.
ALMA watches him with some impatience.
Then he is ready to mount the stairs to
the arch, where a bright light sweeps up
accompanied by the exciting sound of an
audience and a tuning orchestra. It is
larger than life for a moment - as
perhaps ALMA hears it. He walks up the
stairs in an haphazard way, still thinking
over his composition)
(relaxing into an older woman) An American woman -
the Gibson girl she was called - she stank of money -
no brains at all but very beautiful, if that's possible -
she asked me in her car one day on Fifth Avenue,


ALMA:
What made you marry that hideous old man? I admit
(contd
he wasn't looking very good at that time. It was a
year before he died. I sat in the car and talked and
talked - I tried to say all of his music, as my reason
for marrying him. But of course it didn't mean a
thing to her.
(MAHLER is nearly at the top of the
stairs. He stops in an absent way and
looks blindly down towards ALMA)
MAHLER:
You don't want a ring do you?
ALMA:
(vehemently) No, my darling, no! Just conduct for (rong
me! Think of me with every beat! (he moves on)
And look at his trousers .
MAHLER:
(stopping again) After all it's only a stone.
(He goes on and descends the steps on
the other side, and out of sight. A
greatburst of applause drowns the
orchestra)
ALMA:
Listen to them! Listen!
(The applause bec comes deafening as if
to represent ALMA's way of hearing it.
Then it fades sharply and there is a
rap of the baton on the conductor's
desk, off)
After all, he was only fifty when she said that. He
looked SO beautiful when he died. Pale, so pale!
Like a god! Burning black eyes - so huge!
I married twice after that, apart from a near-
marriage with a painter. That would have made
four. I admit it was rather a lot of husbands. A
composer, an architect, a novelist, and as I say a
painter. And every one of them world famous.
Somebody once said that every artist needs a
woman behind him. Well, four of them needed me!
(Allsound has ceased from beyond the
arch.
MAHLER appears suddenly from upstage
of the staircase in a dressing gown,
barefooted)


MAHLER:
You surely can't mean that?
ALMA:
(startled) You're supposed to be conducting
Fidelio!
MAHLER:
That was Seventylyears ago. dires Le plez
gou
- cnniip
ALMA:
What? Gustav! (they stare at each other) It really o
Re brean A L
his
MAHLER:
Did you mean what you said to me once - we were
walking in the woods near Grinzing - you said -
CHANGE of MooD
Kare
(They join each other and stroll along
arm in arm in the open area, laughing)
cloge
ALMA:
(a girl again) I love a man's achievement - that's
what I love! The more there is of it the more I love
him!
MAHLER:
(professorial next to her 22 years) But that's a
terrible thing to say! What if somebody came along
with more up his sleeve than me?
ALMA:
I'd love him more. I'd have to.
MAHLER:
Well, I've got nothing to worry about for the time
being. I'm only forty-four - and there's nobody
in the world with more to offer than I have!
ALMA:
I'll go and get your bath ready.
(She leaves, left)
MAHLER:
(watching her go) What a cheap mind she has in
many ways. That's what I lové. It's like an
animal. I feel safer than with all these society
people. I've always loved animals. Thank God
Mozart isn't alive. She'd marry him like a shot.
But perhaps she wouldn't. He wasn't successful
enough. His bitch of a wife married somebody
else a few weeks after he died.
ALMA:
(off) Gustav! Your bath's ready!
MAHLER:
(going off left) I'm coming!
(The Viennese song ACH DU LIEBER
AUGUSTIN! surges over the speakers.
ALMA hurries on, a young girl in a


sumptuous evening gown. She is
carrying a hai ndmaid table cloth and a
candelabra. She flings the cloth over
the table and sets the candelabra in the
middle)
ALMA:
Vienna in 1901 (nineteenhundred and one) was soft fust
and easy-going and malicious. Of course I wasn't
malicious - I was just nice and twenty-years-old:
oke
MAHLER:
un X e row
ALMA:
(clapping a hand to her mouth) Woops! He's compos -
ing! He mustn't see or hear a human being while
he's composing. (the table set) There! Well, one
day on the Ring, who should bump into me and my
mother but the Zuckerkandls: They asked me to
come and meet the great Mahler! And I didn't
want to! (laughing) I hated the way he conducted
his First Symphony. And I hated his First
Symphony! But Mahler cancelled the date anyway.
And when they asked me a second time, for
another Sunday, I said yes! I accepted! I accepted!
Oh Gustav I accepted!
(She dances round to the music. She
stops suddenly, afraid for her appear-
ance)
ALMA:
(touching her hair) My hair! My face! My dress!
My shoulders are knobbly! My hands are twitching!
(The music has ceased. She stops
spellbound as MAHLER, imposing
and remote in evening clothes, with
cloak and top hat and cane, enters
from the left. He takes his hat and
cloak off slowly and throws them on
the chaise longue. He bows to the
table perfunctorily and sits down.
ALMA steals to her place at the other
end of the table. No chair has been
placed there for her and she drags
one across with a schoolgirl glance at
MAHLER.
He fixes her with his eyes and stays
that way, intrigued and captive)


Aehas tone- Edilt
ALMA:
I wish he 'd take his eyes off me:7 No I don't!
(contd)
(She talks silently to invisible guests,
MAHLER's eyes still on her. She laughs
at something said, and she laughs!)
MAHLER:
(laughing involuntarily) Can't we share the joke down
at the end there?
ALMA:
His poor neighbour - he didn't get a word out of
Mahler all evening. (nodding and laughing) My
neighbours were Gustav Klimt the well-known
painter and Max Burkhart, the great theatrical
director. We burst ourselves laughing!
PDSMIX
MAHLER:
(craning forward to hear a guest) You've just been
to a violin recital? Jan Kubelik? I think he plays
like an angel, yes.
ALMA:
(abruptly ceasing her laughter, and addressing
MAHLER's end of the table with the utmost serious-
ness) I don't like soloist's recitals!
MAHLER:
Nor do I: Nor do I!
(Silence. They are gripped by each
other. They gaze into each other's
eyes)
(unwillingly dragged into conversation by an invisible
guest but still gazing at ALMA) Beauty ?/I think
Socrates was probably beautiful. (rising and wander-
ing off into the open area downstage right) And I
suppose you'd call him old and ugly. Well, he was -
ALMA:
(also rising) I think the composer Alexander von
Zemlinsky beautiful for instance.
MAHLER:
(swivelling round) No. That's going too far. He's
the most atrociously ugly man I've ever set eyes on,
even for a musician.
ALMA:
(approaching him) Why haven't you ever done his
ballet The Golden Heart, Mr. Mahler? I happen to
know that you promised him you would!
MAHLER:
(startled) Because I can't understand it!
ALMA:
Would you like me to explain the whole thing to you?


(He gazes at her. She becomes increas-
ingly confused)
MAHLER:
(smiling) Very well.
ALMA:
What lovely white teeth he has
MAHLER:
I believe you study music?
ALMA:
Yes, Is study under the most atrociously ugly man
you've ever set eyes on!
MAHLER:
Alexander von Zemlinsky? That's why you love him!
Would you like to bring some of your work along to the
Opera one day and show me ?
ALMA:
When I have something -
MAHLER:
Come to my dress rehearsal tomorrow morning
The Tales of Hoffmann.
ALMA:
IfI can get my work done first.
MAHLER:
(ironically) Under Zemlinsky?
(She leaves with a flourish, right.
He stands gazing after her)
(seeming to address her) I'm so lonely, you see.
By the way, this opera doesn't really give the spirit
of Hoffmann's story at all. Just the corpse. I
could hardly get to the end of the second act today.
But with you there - tomorrow! I'll do it for you!
Read that little story of his - Rath Krespel: you'll
see what I mean. That soprano of mine's quite good
- the Schoder girl - but she makes Antonia die of
consumption! That bloody cough of hers! (imitating
her
Antonia does
Suompt
cough)
NOT die of consumption!
She just gives up her personality, her body, which
we are all trying to do - it may take a lifetime, and
it may take millions of lifetimes. Antonia's an
artist you see! She melts away!
ALMA:
(off) She drifts into the endless night!
MAHLER:
What? Oh how bogus she is! (with a shrug) But -
then she's a woman. You see, if you really come
along to my rehearsal tomorrow you can,find out/ a
about music -
a Le


ALMA:
(off) Oh! Generous of you!
MAHLER:
There's no such thing as reality you see -- all this
you see around you, it's just a magic formula - it
disappears when it has served its time - the only
real thing is the soul - I apologise for the word but
how can you have a single word for what can't be
described, only demonstrated. And music demon-
strates it, voilà!
ALMA:
(off) That day you conducted the Meistersinger - I
didn't know you then - you looked like Lucifer -
eyes burning like coals - your face sO white!
(excited) Lucifer! Demon!
MAHLER:
(smiling) Yes, they always call me that. How else
could I have controlled vast operatic productions -
pig-sties of singers, cattle sheds of musicians?
It's the bad ones always hate me - you see, they
know that all I have to do is look inside me for the
answers and I'm always right! And all their study
doesn't get them anywhere near it! All their
intrigues, their worms of ambition gnawing their
entrails out! Are you there? (silence) She's dead.
She's been dead a good - oh I don't know. She died
over fifty years after me. Imagine that! I formed
her, really. Alma! You needed me, didn't you?
For your other men! Do you remember a few days
before I died, we joked about who you'd marry.- and
I went through a whole list? and at the end of the
list I said no, I'd better stay alive - you don't want
any of that lot! But you did get one of them. Old
Gropius. Wasn't he something ghastly like an
ard chitect? Remember when he sent you a telegram
from every station along the Toblach-Vienna line -
and I was at the receiving end - and my darkness
was back again - the early horrors! - you brought
them back! - you broke me! That's why I died!
ALMA:
(off, with horror) No!
MAHLER:
(quietly) But it doesn't matter. You were only an
instrument. It was time for me to go. We have
nothing creative about us. That damn silly word.
We find, and we tell what we find. And then when
we've told our bit we go. And become somebody
else. Are you ready yet?
ALMA:
(off) Not quite.
MAHLER:
Your changing was always a long business, Iremem-
ber.


ALMA:
(off) Tell them about your life, Gustav. There was
always something so modern about you. The people
round you seemed so stagey and heavy and self-
important compared with you!
MAHLER:
(sitting down) WellIstarted life as a Jew. That
means something rather dark for me, to speak quite
honestly. I always had them on my shoulders -
brothers, my mother, my sister! Espe cially my
We wese IA sister Justine - oh my God.AWe were too close!
so clse.
Marrying you was like divorcing her. (You see, I
never really woke up to the kind of life I was living
- I just worked from one production to the next =
talk
I can't tef my life, Alma! I can't! It's these
dreams - it's - . 1
(A pistol shot, off.
MAHLER leaps to his feet, staring
upstage, aghast)
Otto! Otto!
(ALMA rushes on from the left,
dressed rather gorgeously in a
dierndl.)
ALMA:
Gustav!
Not 'Ims Sns
MAHLER:
(subsiding)/I'm tired. It thought it was my brother
Otto!
ALMA:
It was a child outside - a balloon -
MAHLER:
He was a marvellous composer, you know. I found
a couple of symphonies in his drawer. I felt a
terrible remorse when he shot himself, as if my
music had stolen his life and there couldn't be two
of us! Then why was he born at all? And Ernst -
I loved him so much - he died of heart trouble -
and five of the others died - all children - and now/
the rest of the
so many debts -
bmppore
familyk
ALMA:
I'll settle them all. I'm going to put everything in
order.
MAHLER:
How much do I owe by the way?
ALMA:
Fifty thousand crowns.


MAHLER:
It's a big debt to marry.
ALMA:
You're the biggest capital I could think of.
MAHLER:
(looking at her dress with a smile) That's what took a
all the time.
(The Funeral March in the Manner of7
Callot (the third movement of the
First Symphony) steals over)
Do you hear that?
ALMA:
(disappointed at his scanty attention to her dress)
What?
MAHLER:
The Funeral March - I wrote it when I was 33 -
idot waut funaral marcher!
ALMA:
I'm young!
MAHLER:
a OMEH (catching her) Listen!
IVIE
emunear!
The critics called my music sterile, trivial, extra-
vagant, an unholy bloody noise. (as the music fades)
You know, I thought I'd never be able to love proper-
ly - give everything - I often tried to and something
always went wrong - but you lifted me out of that.
ALMA:
Why funeral marches then? -
MAHLER:
And why are you so frightened of funerals? Don't
you realisealt-these little terrors are going to save
you from the worst part of yourself - the rich
man's daughter?
ALMA:
Max Burkhart said 1 you i going to put
out my flàme with yours! You wrote më'that terrible
letter, forbidding me ever to compose a song again!
MAHLER:
(sharply) Nobody can forbid you to compose! Compos-
ing pours out of the skin, it can't be stopped! Do you
think my composing could be stopped? [It goes on all
the time! All these shrivelled little thoughts - do away
with them! (going to her) I was harsh like that with
my mother. I used to play the piano and ifI saw her
stealing into the room to listenI used to stop and sit
stock-still until she e'd gone again. And your little
face reminds me of her. Only it's healthier.


ALMA:
Is that wrong?
e ne
Cen
MAHLER:
I suppose I like to see the mark of sorrow -
Calms nr nesehnet)
ALMA:
It's there - on your face.A I've seen it so often - at
the opera house, when you're conducting!
MAHLER:
Eoi A
chids I loved e
but I didn't show her any feëling!Nie usëd to scream
at us both! Can you imagine the horrors of that
family - the daily horrors? Thank God I became a
Christian! Thank God_,for the light! All that hell of
belonging - no! I gotihe freedom! Ifound the silence
of silences inside. (touching her face) IfI love you,
my child, it's because of the Christian light in you,
which you know nothing about. Mysister said to me
'You're
'Dirt
slina
once,
flesh of my flesh!' I said,
remember
losho
your dirt, you meanl Do you
that morning
you came to the Tales of Hoffmann rehearsal? - the
second time we saw each other - and you wouldn't look
at me?
ALMA:
I was feeling malicious.
MAHLER:
You little cat! And I ca lled out to you from the desk,
'Miss Schindler, how did you sleep last night?'
ALMA:
And I said, 'Perfectly - why shouldn't I?'
MAHLER:
And I said, 'I didn't sleep a wink all night'.
(They gaze at each other, in perfect
stillness)
(with a glance behind him) I need you - I ache for
you all day - when I'm out of Vienna I feel sick!
I hear your name all the time! Do you feel the
same?
ALMA:
Yes! Yes!
MAHLER:
We 've got to marry the fever's got to endl- - did you
tell your mother?
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
I feel everything's for youl- all the music - the opera
- every time I tap the desk - the sound of your dress -
it's all bound up together!


ALMA:
It's so overwhelming! You've got so much behind you
- and I'm sO poor!
Do you know how I'm going to celebrate our engage -
ment? I'm going to give you a dress rehearsal of The
Magic Flute! Just you - the only audience! in secret!
ALMA:
But Mr. Director!
(He buttons himself up and walks towards
the staircase)
MAHLER:
(turning) Will you be there?
ALMA:
Oh yes, yes!
(Dim house lights go up beyond the arch
and a tuning or chestra sounds again)
MAHLER:
(on his way up the stairs) Mr. Director, she calls
me. Chills me to the bone. How could she do it?
(stopping and gazing down at her) A girl of twenty!
- and she could take me down into the jaws of hell,
with the tips of her fingers!_ Thank God she doesn't
know it - or perhaps she does. Her stepfather,
Karl Moll, the old bastard, told her not to marry me,
He said I was ugly andy poor in health and unpopular
cunal
at the Operaand badly in debt and a nyway my music i
Jernin
stank. (triumph) And still she wants to marry me!
Can you beat that? Am I too old then? KI don't know
rt 1 what to do with someone sO young - look at her! -
the way she darts around - if only she'd had an affair
or lost a husband or something! (shouting up
towards the arch) Allright, all right, you'll be
lining
playing soon enough, don't worry! Damned buffaloes!
beant 1
(looking down at ALMA again) How preaious she is.
More SO every day, since thatf first dinner party,
where she baptised me into life! (addressingthe
arch again) Don't worry. you-won't get rid of me for
a long time yet-atleast five years! I've put Mozart
on the mar- nobody could sing him until I came
along! Is she still there? Miss Schindler!
ALMA:
(startled) Yes?
MAHLER:
Why the devil do you want to marry me?
ALMA:
Well -


Foyrortende
Grll
werto
aee
Zuae
hu he
vec h
Fan
(nd's eret
Ajp
say mol A
ca tak


MAHLER:
Do you remember wherg Faust sings, APast under-
standing are God's works, and fair as at the birth of
light'? That's why you're marrying me! Because my
music is bright like country air - clean like the day -
that's what you want to marry - not me!
ALMA:
But I still don't like your Fourth. I like it as little
as your First.
MAHLER:
Oh, liking has nothing to do with it!
(He disappears quickly through the
arch. The tuning quickly fades. We
hear him tap the conductor's desk
sharply with his baton)
Wig dte
wc K haryg hn 2 ouk pluse
ALMA:
Marrying-him-because_of somathing in Faust? What 2
do these men think?,
Me's got the most
horrible friends! There's that Pole Siegfried
Lipiner who looks like a gorilla with his beastly bald
skull. His eyes are sO close together [burlesquing
his appearance) they're like cufflinks threaded
through his nose sideways. Nietsche thought him
very fine, sO did Wagner, sO does Gustav Mahler.
Prahce
And even Brahms once said, 'That lying hound of a
Pole interests me. Well, he doesn't interest me!
Icànsee right through him to the seat of his dirty
lo0
pants! And it isn't as if there's just one of him.
There's his first wife, his second wife, his mistress
who Gustav Mahler is supposed to share!
Much
Yes,
they mount the same whore and think I don't know!
The cat!
fasv
The cow! The look she gave me that first
day in his office - and Mahler nibbling at her hand
every time she said something stupid, the poor
trussed-up overdressed sallow-faced bitch! Then
there's the Pole's first wife's husband, who looks
as much of a gorilla as he does. And he thinks I
want to marry that lot! And this faded whore comes
up swinging her arse and says, 'Do you laike Gustav's
music?' Do I like it! The cheek! And he stands
there laughing! Well, I know one thing, there won't
be any of that crew near him in a month from now!
I know how to deal with great artists - young as I am
- I've got the hang of it already - all you do is see
they have a room ready for them, and peace and quiet,
and meals on time, and the rest you organise yourself!
His life's going to have a huge DON'T DISTURB
notice written right across it from now on! We'll see
Tuis
cla i t. indlulys
pes
Chow
muligs
te Wole rane
per
e Hhe cha le STuee


>'Gofoeatoi - Rayme a a
lu tand.
fai
ley mal
hirh 2 Ies
God', waybs ee keyad
ulartandig, alh f
hist a liee!


venom,
calty
Griel
T Eb
ALMA:
who's the better bitch of the two, that tired instrument
(contd)
on which SO many Viennese musicians have played or
me, a virgin. I've never been played on, and she's puns
already out of tune! My little jewel is intacta, and so
it remains until the greatest man in Vienna seizes
hold of it! Yes! (dashing up the staircase) I'm
late! (stopping in the ar chway and looking down the
other side) Oh look! He's like a king! So small and
still, and everybody silent round him. They're
supposed to hate him but look how they
wed
hide/their
horns! Those second violins are a bunch ofmalicious
old
but look at them
cats,
now, they're purring! And
he dares to ask me why I'm marrying him! I'm
ing you for love, you absent-minded fool! I love ayorey
oh how I love you, my little prince of music.7
(She slowly descends the steps on the
other side, out of sight.
Instead of music the deafening clatter
of a railway station comes over the
speakers.
MAHLER bustles in from the left in a
travelling coat, snow on his hat and
shoulders. He stamps the snow from
Wit
his overboots. The personal area
has become a railway compartment.
He sits down puffing, tired. He opens
his overcoat, takes off his hat, cleans
his spectacles. He takes out a book,
looks at it, sniffs, glances round.
ALMA, also in travelling clothes and
equally covered in snow, comes
staggering in with her arms full of
hand luggage)
MAHLER:
(briefly looking up) Ah, there you are.
(He returns to his book. She settles
the hand luggage. He puts his book
down, sighs with pleasure. She takes
off her travelling coat. Suddenly they
seem to see each other for the first
time. They hug each other and kiss.
They look into each other's eyes and


laugh. They can't stop laughing. It is
Coue l
a long delighted laugh, a release of
atel
their joy which seems to have been
pent up until now.
Then with a great sigh ALMA unclips
her skirt, and the corset underneath)
ALMA:
There! I needn't play the virgin any more!
MAHLER:
You played it well.
ALMA:
Do you think mummy suspected anything?
MAHLER:
Of course. Mummies always do.
ALMA:
(touching her tummy) He feels happy to be going to
St. Petersburg.
MAHLER:
(also touching her tummy) And his mama - what
about her?
ALMA:
Oh! You tell me! Look in my eyes!
MAHLER:
Iread a certain - well I suppose it could be happiness.
(They hug and kiss again, they laugh)
ALMA:
People outside are looking at us.
MAHLER:
And you love it. You're cheeky, you're impossible!
Isaw you laughing when I fell up the altar steps
this morning.
ALMA:
It was funny! Even the priest laughed.
MAHLER:
(gazing out of the window) Do you think all those
people are going to St. Petersburg?
ALMA:
(busy with the hand luggage again) I don't know. All
I know is that we three are!
MAHLER:
Perhaps they're all going to my concert.
(ALMA takes out bread and sausage,
a thermos flask full of coffee, lace
napkins etc.)
I didn't know you brought all that stuff.


ALMA:
You talked to me while I was packing it. You poured
the coffee yourself.
MAHLER:
Good God.
(ALMA offers him some food)
I'll just have coffee. You haven't got an apple have
you?
ALMA:
(pouring his coffee) No.
MAHLER:
(again looking out of the window) We're off.
Stay?
Fain
ALMA:
(hai nding him his coffee) Here. Your coffee.
MAHLER:
ALMA:
'Ah!' Well I'm going to eat.
MAHLER:
It's sO hot in here.
(ALMA eats ravenously)
ALMA:
MAHLER:
They overheat these compartments. (loosening
his jacket)
ALMA:
Oh Gustav! I do hope you don't start a sore throat!
(The whistle goes and the train pulls
out with a steady nineteenth century
boom and clatter)
Wouldn't it have been nice if somebody had waved
us goodbye? Mummy for instance? Or Karl Moll?
MAHLER:
To hell with Karl Moll. I see him every day.
ALMA:
But not to hell with mummy'
MAHLER:
I'm sick to death of all people except one. I have
them all and every day, remember - orchestras
of them, choruses of them. And I'll have them
again as soon as I tep
at St.
Petersburg.
21 - hatn
ALMA:
(her mouth full) Yes I suppose so!


(A phrase from the Seventh Symphony
comes over. His mouth is open, he is
gazing before him, conducting slightly
with his right hand.
ALMA gazes at him, a piece ofbread
poised)
ALMA:
(contd)
Are you composing?
1 le
yroe
4ir
comes to
suddenly and the music the
fades away)
MAHLER:
It'll be years before I write anything like that.
ALMA:
Anything like what? I didn't hear it.
MAHLER:
Ah no, of course not. Funny isn't it - I can imagine
it - hear it - but it goes when I've got the paper in
front of me. It's in the tragic mood - it's for later
- later in life -
ALMA:
Tragic? Is the future going to be tragic?
- + ful la stule
(He simply gazes before him. She
finishes eating and settles deeper to
into her seat. She leans her head on ceke
his shoulders, then closes her eyes. N
pres
Again the phrase from the Seventh
steals over, softer now. His right Cul
hand comes up almost imperceptibly
again, twitching. He shakes his head
to the music, beguiled, drugged with it.
It fades again, leaving the clatter of the
train)
MAHLER:
You like a bit of glitter don't you?
ALMA:
(blinking awake) What?
NoT
uhlet
MAHLER:
Bo-yos-inow-why
Lob
rney have
dn't How
num
Ur 01 I a a € a 1 a
wank I mean, you like dinn er parties a bit, don't
you and little men like the President of the Society
of the Friends of Music?


(Silence between them. Battle is brew-
ing. She slowly levers herself away
from him)
ALMA:
Isn't that Siegfried Lipiner's story, that I flirted with
the President?
MAHLER:
Why do you hate Lipiner?
ALMA:
Hate him? I adore him as a matter of fact! a laok
MAHLER:
He doesn't think so.
ALMA:
He never thinks. Nietzsche and all sorts of other
writers think for him - he gets all his talk out of
their books.
MAHLER:
It's marvellous talk, though.
ALMA:
I agree. That's why I adore him. So why does he
spread a lot of horrible stories about me?
MAHLER:
He doesn't!
ALMA:
He told you I flirted with the President of the
Society of the Friends of Music all through your
Fourth Symphony the other day.
MAHLER:
But that has nothing to do with what I said - Isaid
you liked the big world - I didn't say you shouldn't
- I meant that the President represents that world
perfectly
ALMA:
In other words the President's an idiot - and I'm an
idiot - and all your friends are geniuses! (bursting
into tears) He's been a friend of my family for
years! Years!
Alma: Wrs shoalfit Zeg?
MAHLER:
Because
MAHLER:
Oh for God's sake don't cry:/1 can't stand the sound
of a woman crying!
ALMA:
Oh yes! It's always what you can't bear isn't it?
I mustn't cry because you can 't bear it! It's always
you!
MAHLER:
Alma, I meant I couldn't bear the su ffering behind
it -
ALMA:
It's natural' You've got to face up
- you talk just like Dostoevsky! - and you're
AByn
both egoists! Egoists can never bear the thought of
suffering!?


Wele, 71
hea
eath
hurtu
Alma
he Iten ! Hehp
me make Lende Ovau
WI do v wk, a


(She sobs herself to dry eyes)
MAHLER:
instruct me then,, We murder millions ofanmals
for our food, mothers gothrough agonies in childbirth,
the animals kill each other with frightful cruelty, there
are hordes of poor people who can't even clothe their
children, and there are the rich who are much less
happy than anybody.A
Nothing's settled for a moment. 'There are quarrels all
the time, assassinations, bankruptcies, suicides. a -r
We're making love one minute and quarrelling the
next.
uni do
AA l
all 1
ALMA:
We wouldn't have quarrelled if you hadn't started it.
MAHLER:
(with a laugh) So you won't tell me what the answer
is! (settling back again and gazing before him, then,
with extreme sadness) Perhaps He will one day.
rhi doeal Cobo
ALMA:
Who?
(MAHLER gazes out of the window.
ALMA closes her eyes again. She nestles
into him. The train clatters on.
The urd
A frightening passage from the Seventh
comes crashing through. He does not
conduct this time. He stares before
him tensely, as it were aghast at these
tremendous sounds. ALMA appears to
hear nothing.
The music melts into the slowing of
the train, with its screech. There
are the sudden bright lights of the
station, much larger than life. They
seem tobe the climax of the music.
He is terrified. He starts, stares
out of the window. The music ceases.
He subsides: it is just a railway
station.
ALMA sleeps. He unleans her from
him gently. He mops his brow. She
goes on sleeping. He rises and leaves
the compartment.
There are the sounds of a busy railway
station.


M etur
wh A - Hita er


ALMA is woken by them. She starts
when she sees that MAHLER is not at
Too
her side. She sees his greatcoat. She
a V
jumps up, dashes to the window)
lye
ALMA:
(calling to him) Gustav! Gustav! Come in! You're
mad! Come in at once! Gustav!
(There is laughter outside.
GUSTAV stumbles back into the com-
partment, hatless, his collar open,
covered with snow, panting. He simply
throws himself into the seat, unable to
speak)
Gustav, how could you? It's 30 below outside!
Gustav! Do you want to die?
(He is shivering. She covers him with
his own greatcoat.
She looks up at the window, where
people are staring in and laughing, and
she makes a face at them)
Oh go away and stop giggling, you silly people!
If all the Russians are like you, the country's a zoo!
(attending to MAHLER) My darling!
(He gradually re covers himself.
The whistle blows outs ide and the
train booms out of the station. He
gazes out of the window with weak eyes)
MAHLER:
I had such a painful throat. These trains are over-
heated, terribly overheated.
ALMA:
You've got a fever. And you go out in the freezing
cold! Gustav, look at me. You're always talking
about nature, then why aren't you closer to your own
body? You don't seem to know what to do with it!
MAHLER:
(gazing at her for some time, and then smiling) I do
what I feel I ought to do. I needed the air. And I do
feel better. No, I don't understand my body.
Che
a jeato offhis upper lip
and brow.
Fade t Tams amel -


They nestle upto each other again and
sleep. Sometime passes, Again with
a greataash of lights and the screeching
of brakes the trainpulls in at a station/
MAHLERstarts awake, stares out ofthe
window. He mops his brow, gasps. And
again he quietly unleans ALMA from his
shoulder and leaves the compartment
hatless and coatless.
ALMA starts awake)
ALMA:
He's gone again! Oh welliet him! I'm going to eat
and sleep - for the litte one.
(Thesound ofa tuning orchestra comes
ypbeyond the axch. The conductor's
desk is rapped, and there is silence)
It's started! Oh dear!
(She gathers all the hand Nuggage frantic-
ally, puts his bat on top of thers, throws
both her andhis overcoat on. She
staggers across the stage under the
Grdwwed
load, towards the arch)
a ck nal
Look, the Neva's frozen
over' There are tramlines across it! Gustav!
MAHLER appears under the arch in I
Ris encars
clothes)
IVE
wease-hi sHeT merds
Whato
MAHLER
(waving the orchestraimpatientl IL te-silenee) say old
Wagner fits everywhere doesn't he even auz issia
these-spaeest Ah-Richard! Theone neony
greatestt
ALMA:
Oh Gustav! How ever are you going to get through three
concerts with a throat like-that?
(She begins stumbling up the steps, all but
enveloped in greatcoats, hats, hand luggage.
Her struggling-becomes a burlesque as he
talks)
MAHLER:
still roarse) Doryourreathse-thesh Russians-leek-down
their noses when-you-mentionbostoevs sky? Ofcourse
weall Lknow that.real.work-never-gets-Hto-dwe-enti-long
after-youlre deadr When.mosi.people talk-abeutart
they_mean.objats d'art justaproduct.


Jongeoug
ALMA:
(slumping down on the top step) What lot ofstairs!
MAHLER:
Oh you're young! Botawe
exen-se CS
tW A
the wwe
ALMA:
I'm expe cting!
stesurrounded-by hand luggage
MAHLER:
Such a funny old COW that archduchess from Moscow,
wasn't she? But-theylne-nicen-than-oum-anisteeraey
Lide -
on-the-wholer Beeause-they.aspize-harderytIsuppese.
CoTo OVs
She asked me to tell her what death was like.
ALMA:
Did she find such a lot of it in your music?
MAHLER:
I imagine she did. I felt rather complimented.
(The light changes to something mellower
as they gaze before them, thinking. In
the background Ach Du Lieber Augustin!
drifts over)
(his voice normal again) Alma, why did they stare at
us when we were driving through the streets of St.
Petersburg in an open troika?
ALMA:
Because it was 30 degrees below zero and open troikas
aren't for that sort of weather. And secondly because
we look funny. People always stare at us.)
Dd'you remember Crefeld? wheredidg Third
symphony' ? foarhadone-ofthosereform-dresses-on
for pregnmt-women- and children called after us in
the street - and we had to pour water on their heads
from the hotel balcony
nable; No!
ALMA:
You seem to be rather good at that sort of thing don't
you? Do you remember whenyou poured water on to a
group of fashionable ladies athy restaurant?
MAHLER:
Impossible!
ALMA:
That was from a balcony too! You wanted to wash
your hands SO you leaned over and tipped the water
jug on to your fingers! There were shrieks from
and do
know what
below,
you
they said when they
arf
saw you? - They said, 'Oh, it's only Mahler. 1
And they moved to another table, to get out of your
way. Then you wanted to wash your hands a second
time, so you thought you'd
further along the
Rggre
balcony so as not to inconvenience that R
degan -
lattte barls lrdtessagain. You tipped the jug over your hands -
right on to the table they'd moved to!
fin


(She enjoys this greatly.
Silence)
ALMA:
What a lot of travelling we seem to do. Crefeld,
(contd)
St. Petersburg, Vienna!
MAHLER:
At least, this is home.
ALMA:
(pointing through the arch) Is that your apartment
down there, with the broken down door?
MAHLER:
Yes, we're nearly there. Are you tired,
Jeel misa nda y
ALMA:
Is seem to have been through so many experiences!
And those walks you in for. All over St.Petersburg,
Iswear that's why the streets were so icy hard, we
walked on them so much!
M. AHLER:
It does you good, my darling. (rising) I'll go ahead
and see that everything's all right.
(He goes through the arch)
ALMA:
Gustav!
MAHLER:
(returning) Yes?
laugs
ALMA:
Please take these bags.
MAHLER:
(taking them) Ah yes.
ALMA:
(He goes through the arch with the
hand luggage, and disappears)
(calling him) Gustav!
MAHLER:
(off) Yes ?
ALMA:
Why do you look shabby in the most expensive clothes ?
MAHLER:
(off, with a laugh) I'm always in love, my darling -
with you - with Mozart - or the Rhine maidens!
Yes, that's how Iam!


(She continues gazing through the arch)
ALMA:
How clever your absent-mindedness is. You absent-
mindedly get me pregnant a m onth before we're even
engaged, sO as to demoralise me, get me nicely under
your thumb, stop other men looking at me - and then
of course I have to marry you! Don't tell me you
haven't eyes in your backside, Mr. Director, because
Ik know you have! All artists have! Well, (rising) we'll
see if you can get away with it! We'll see who gets the
ul ha
upper hand! (calling after him) You're jealous of my
these
youth! my beauty! (stopping) Why do I have
gr . yo
thoughts ? He's such an angel. Why can't Ibe one ?
Fms
(MAHLER enters the downstage area
below the staircase, minus his great-
coat and the hand
Gous
luggage.
ALMA disappears through the arch.
Simultaneously with MAHLER's entrance
a gramophone screeches out a Viennese
waltz. The record is scratched and
worn)
MAHLER:
(aghast at the noise) Oh no! I say! (making towards
the personal area on the left) I say! Take that
record off! Take it off!
(ALMA dashes in from the right, now
dressed in a reform' dress for pregnancy)
ALMA:
What the devil's that?
MAHLER:
(shouting) It's that blasted captain - the one who shares
the flat!
ALMA:
(shrieking) Captain?
M AHLER:
He's got a room at the end of the corridor!
ALMA:
A what?
MAHLER:
A room!
ALMA:
A woman?
MAHLER:
No, a room, a room!
ALMA:
A room ? And what's that got to do with this ?
MAHLER:
What?


ALMA:
Why - this noise?
MAHLER:
Because he hates me! He knows I'm a composer,
and I can't stand noise! So he puts it on when I come
ALMA:
Oh he does does he ?
(She storms across the stage and exits
left. MAHLER gazes after her.
The noise continues.
Then it abruptly ceases )
MAHLER:
Good Lord. She's killed him.
(ALMA strolls back)
ALMA:
He's out,
MAHLER:
Out? Who?
ALMA:
The Captain. It's his batman puts the record on.
He has orders to start it up whenever you come in.
MAHLER:
Il know. I told you that myself.
ALMA:
No, you didn't. You said the captain put it on.
Anyway I guaranteed him a little income for not doing
it. He'll just put the record on when the captain happens
to come home.
MAHLER:
Well, you seem to have established yourself already.
(She begins pushing the furniture back
to the old positions from the 'railway
compartment' positions.
MAHLER watches her)
You said you were tired just now. You don't look tired
now.
u a
7 koho. L
app
ser GC kna X
(She subsides into one of the chairs)
ALMA:
lad
I think it's lovely.
dwe sul
nul
rmal
MAHLER:
You do?
nil
de Hhr
nuo
intai
u a
wa Nltoi


lu deel,
Tue te a
lent
ALMA:
Yes I do. I don't know why you needed me.
ad (epe
MAHLER:
(going close to her) You've got
tears in your aflettine
eyes. Why? (taking her) Tell me why!
ALMA:
I thought it wouldn't be nice. You're famous for your
absent-mindedness and I thought it would be a dirty
bachelor's den, sort of thing. Then I could have done
lots of things to it. You have to be on top all the time!
un'r
MAHLER:
Ionsrt
Don't you see Ia
thet apartmei ent lachd?
-hed-ne-light-until-you-eame-in?
so of course you call it lovely, because yeulue brought
your prtety-emd-your-truth:
other You've brought4the spring, in It was always
winter before. And the captain's going to eat out of your
hand, like his batman did.
ALMA:
And then you'll accuse me of flirting.
MAHLER:
Only if you do flirt!
ALMA:
When our house on the lake's ready we'll go there,
won't we, all the summer, and be alone, and you'll
compose, and I'll orchestrate your scores, and we'll
work and work, and forget eve rything else except our
baby!
MAHLER:
Do you know, my mysieis only that what you've just
said being alone-land getting nearer to God and
(The awful waltz blasts out again)
(shouting) I thought you'd - :
ALMA:
What?
MAHLER:
I thought you'd stopped him!
ALMA:
(at the top of her voice, as she strides out left)
The captain's come back!
MAHLER:
What?
ALMA:
(stopping to stamp her foot with rage) The captain!
The captain's come back!
(She goes off.


MAHLER makes rather frantic movements as
if these will exorcise the dreadful noise.
Then suddenly the record ceases again)
MAHLER:
(He strolls quietly to his chair left,
and takes up a score page)
(beginning to write) And now she'll find out how charming
the captain is.
(He sighs.
The music he is composing steals over a
snatch from the Fifth. It ceases as he
ceases to write.
He writes again and a further phrase from
the Fifth comes over: it isthe Adagio.
He ceases again and now we hear birds
outside. And there are the playing cries
of children in the distance. There is the
country sound of/hammering. echoing
voices, a splash as someone dives into the
lake. We are at Maiernigg on the Worthersee.
MAHLER gazes before him, pleasantly
exhausted. He has written himself out. He
is hot. He flings off his jacket, rises and
stretches.
The third m ovement of the Sixth comes over
and seems to merge and take up the distant
cries of children, being in fact a musical
representation of two children playing in the
sand and stumbling about. MAHLER seems to
be criticising it in his mind, though without
movements of the face or hands. He is simply
concentrated, as he strolls up centre with
his hands in his pockets.
The music fades. He stands quite still,
seeming to listen. Then the last movement
of the Sixth Symphony comes up swiftly and
relentlessly)
MAHLER:
(shouting) Yes! Yes! The three blows offate - one, two,
three! (a sweep of his hand) And the hero falls, there, at
the third blow! Zuk!


TAPE -
ends Actock-on-the-lake
strikes-midday-and-he-walks-upstage-behind
the staircase.
The Sixth comes up.again,-drewning-
everytl
vith its-three-blows-ef-fate,
A great splash as he plunges into the lake.
And Theniiscry-of-pieasure--e-laughsure-He-laughs.
The-musie-ceases
ALMAT in-a-bright summer dress onthe
fantastic side, appears upstage of the
staircase-with a bath-towel under her arm.
She is no longer pregnant. She gazes
upstage across the lake.
We hear MAHLER whistle her from the
distance. She-smiles-and-waves)-
ALMA(VO)
Gustav! Gustav! Not so far out!
(We hear the children again,the birds.
MAHLER makes another cry of pleasure
from the distance)
MAHLER:C vo)
unctire-distancs Almschili!
ALMA(VO)
That's enough!
stechis-table, tooks-athis
MAHLER: C vo, (closer,) off) It's so good!
(OEf) e
Jem
ALMA (vo2
towel,
Mablilfvoi) I'll dry in the sun.
ALMA:CVo)
No, it can't be good for you, it's at the top of the sky!
MAHLER(VO)
(off) How's Putzi?


ALMA(VO)
Asking for you!
He-enters-with-the-towel round-him)-
toha uno
Why do you sacrifice yourself like that? swim out so
Eido Tope
far? You had a haemorrha gea year before we married.
AAMA
You give your attention to everything except me. You
hardly look at me.
Centinpldr
MAHLER:
But it's different now! We're together we're side by
side = not looking at each other = we'ré working side by
side -
ALMA:
It's different because I'm working in the house all day!
and there are two children to look after! and everything
has to be on time! If your breakfast isn't there in the
hut at seven sharp -
MAHLER:
Oh for God's sake don't cry over trivialities!
ALMA:
They're NOT trivialities for me, because I DO them!
Don't you understand that? I change their nappies -
I order the food - and stand over the maid - and arrange
the house - and keep people away from you!
MAHLER:
(quietly) Don't you remember how Iam in the winter, at
that blasted
and
and aren't
night
day,
gunfouds Is supposed tobe here for a rest? And you know I never
take a rest, aren't Iworking at my music here - ? Alma!
Isn't my music the best devotion you could wish for? I
thought we were closer than that!
ALMA:
Yes, yes! I know!
MAHLER:
If I didn't plunge ahead with the work - would there be
m oney?
ALMA:
I know!
(They sit in silence. He gazes before him)
MAHLER:
Explain to me more - what you mean.
ALMA:
You give your singers m ore attention than you do me!
MAHLER:
(laughing) Well - what sort of operas would we get if I
didn't?
ALMA:
I'm afraid of losing you every time you go to rehearsal.


MAHLER:
And when I'm working here - in the hut - what are you
afraid of then?
ALMA:
Gustl, I looked at the Adagio. Munc SAr
MAHLER:
Did you like it?
ALMA:
Oh Gustl! -
Mare
MAHLER:
Would you like to copy it for me ?
ALMA:
Yes!
MAHLER:
It's only a sketch - you can fill in the gaps - only you
can do that -
(They are silent again. There are the
cries of the children. He gets up)
ALMA:
Go to your Putzi.
MAHLER:
Do you mean that nicely?
ALMA:
Oh yes!
(He leaves - upstage of the staircase,
right)
MAHLER:
(off, calling back to her) Will you come soon? Is lunch
on the table ?
ALMA:
Yes! Yes! Lunch is on the table. Everything's ready.
anttedet. It always is. A
caie When you've been on tour
there's a hot bath waiting for you when you get back,
steaming as you come in the door.
MAHLER:
(off) Isn't that what we've got servants for?
ALMA:
Yes, Gustav. (after he is out of earshot) Oh, Gustav,
you've eaten me up - I don't exist - if only you knew!
MAHLER: No) (off) Do you think I exist?
ALMA:
(starting at his voice) No! Your music but not you! And
soT'm a slave to that too, now. I have to shush the children
quiet all the time. You love little Putzi but not me! There's
hiy something between the two of you - something lovely, a
silent message that closes me out! And then (you come out
of your hutlooking like a godlwhen you've finished your
shedding light all round - it falls out of your hair!
PEL
axeetace
Aaik
bre


(The cries of the children, joined by MAHLER's
laughter, off.
ALMA raises herself disc onsolately and goes
towards his work table.
She slumps down
2 N
in his chair and takes one of his SC ores. She
DuEn
reads the Adagio of the Fifth again, and it
steals over. She gives way to it - in the
PUr
sense that it expresses what she feels, all
Gr-Sc
the m ore poignantly because it was written
by the person she has just been complaining to.
prot
She puts the score down again, and abstractedly
takes up another. The music fades. The first
version of the Fifth comes over: this was
over-written for percussion. It crashes over
the speakers.
She frowns. This neither m oves nor pleases
her.
She jumps up. The music cuts off as she
throws the score down)
ALMA:
(calling) Gustl! Gustl! (no reply) Gustl!
(He appears like an alarmed child, now in
his dressing gown)
si 4 sconip ?) Gulav: Ye.. ehs! -
/ &rit's a terrible noise! How could you do it?
MAHLER:
How could I do what?
ALMA:
don! You've gone mad with the drums! Mad! You've
ruined everything!
o mal à t
Nnermunt
MAHLER:
Drums? What drums ?
ALMA:
Here! Here! (tapping the score violently)
C 1
MAHLER:
(suddenly wild with delight) Not yet! Not yet I haven't
ruined it! You see, I can cut! Here - (dashing across
the room to the table) look - (grabbing his pencil and
drawing lines across the score) - out with the side-drums,
that's for a start - then half the percussion instruments
out! Now! How's that? (grabbing her and swinging her
round) And now come to lunch.. We need light at the lunch
table! We need the sun! Oh what a lioness you are!
ALMA:
And sometimes a bitch?
Kn- he
mancal teroufuder
e emendm
med caek lr hand
Seshe


MAHLER:
I didn't say so.
ALMA:
You don't call me nice things in the old way. I
remember how you called me the spring once -
when we started living in your Viennese apartment -
you said I brought the spring in.
MAHLER:
But the spring doesn't last for ever, Almscherl.l I
wish you could learn to take things in their rhythm.
Don't cling to ideas. You can't be an artist out of the
head. You've got to be natural. You've got to start
with life. If I had the children all day I'd make music
out of them - I'd make it out of dirty nappies! And
isn't it all there in my music anyway? Isn't there the
dirt and the struggle and then a blaze of redeeming light ?
ALMA:
And then you make such a fool of me at dinner parties.
The last one, with all thosel 1 people picking their
gold teeth - you haaveeme in half way through and take
an apple off the bowl in the middle of the table and keep
smelling jt, while everybody staree at you: And then
you jump up before the last course and go to the other
room. And you know everybody's going to follow you!
And then they stop and stare at us in the street, every-
where we go - 'Look, there's Mahler and his wife! 1 But
he's not with anybody! His wife's just trailing along!
Id don't know where to put my face sometimes!
MAHLER:
What have I got to do - study the way they look at me,
the
idiots! No, you're happy, Almscherl -
happy to'have somebody who doesn't give a damn. Because
you don't give a damn either! Do you remember that tane
from the Sixth - the second subject in the first
movement? That's you! That's my Almo music!
(The 'ALMA theme' steals over. He
beats time and sings very vigorously
da, da, dum, di, da, di! tfades),
ALMA:
I'm not good enough for it. After I've been working in
the house all day I feel just a body - I don't want to Gustl! -
MAHLER:
Does it help you to work on my scores - as if we were
one spirit - not one body - one spirit - doing the same,
thing?
ALMA:
(after a sad pause) Yes.
aluo n lux
ely duguw-
unals


(ALMA notices another score on the table.
She picks it up)
ALMA:
And what's this? Songs on the death of children? What
children? What death? Oh Gustl!
MAHLER:
It's a setting on Ruckert!
ALMA:
Toe? He lost his child - it was the most horrible loss of
his life! Gustl! (as the harrowing Kindertotenlieder
come bursting over) How could you do it? How could
you tempt fate like that?
MAHLER:
But listen to it! Listen! (grabbing her) Now!
Listen to that!
Kratk
ALMA:
Oh Gustl!
(She shrugs, throwing the score down.
The music fades. He takes her arm.
They walk upstage together)
MAHLER:
You know, they just don't understand my music =
the Viennese, the Germans, nobody. Their cheering
doesn't fool me. And when you come to think of it
what could they make of all these primeval sounds ?
these worlds that seem to surge up and then crash
down again one after another - And there are
thousands of faces going by - an/endless procession!
It's like a judgement day - but there's no punishment -
no heaven or hell - nothing but light - a vast still
light - that's what you have at the end of life, just an
ocean of light!
ALMA:
I feel better. Go on talking to me - just to me!
(MAHLER walks on in thought. Then
he turns to her gravely)
lee heer A
7 Is sas
MAHLER:
Darling, Ithough
teu
IEts Ever since the painters came, fhere'sne most
tremendous stink of rotten glue in' my room. You
don't think it could do me harm, do you!
(She stands staring at him and then
bursts into helpless laughter. It
infects him. They laugh together -
the same force of joy as in the train.
They go off upstage of the staircase,
arm in arm. We hear their laughter,
off)


It dies away.
There is silence. We hear the children
again in the distance.
Very faintly the Kindertotenliedersteal
over again, hardly more than a suggestion)


PART TWO
The scene comes up under a strange
brilliance of light, ominous and unreal.
Simultaneously Lehar's waltz from
THE MERRY WIDOW bursts over the
speakers.
Dressed in evening clothes MAHLER and
locine
yrr a
ALMA whirl into view at the top of the
steps, under the
HAAN
arch, dancing waltz that is
deta Inor
almost a ballet.
Ela,
hyl
Once at centre stage they whirl round and
round and then
out
puen, P
draw upstage and
wr Loncy
sight beyond the staircase while the music
plunges on.
disd-l
xis
cfit e ye
They reappear from the right, downstage
ail
of the staircase. Now the professional
deftness has disappeared. Their steps
are not
mnor
so light. They are beaming at each
other but simply dancing the correct
Srgin
dull
steps
together. He whirls her - but not fantastically
now - towards one of the chairs on the left, and
she subsides into it, out of breath. He stands
gazing at her, panting.
ALMA:
If only we'd danced like that when we were alive.
MAHLER:
You don't think we could ha ve danced like that, do you?
Inever tried to express myself in the body. I wanted that
eternal/blessedness) you remember Goethe's phrase
in Faust?
ALMA:
Did you find it? (as he shrugs) I just went from day to day.
I had no time to live.
MAHLER:
Your body needed many more journeys, didn't it? -
many more men?
ALMA:
Yes.
fud
laup
MAHLER:
Did you
a hint of the-blig in the end?
ANAar
ALMA:
Not like you. The way you used to come out of your room
with joy all over your face.
ddlacluen
enoino e
tm boly


Tug dance egaii, iu eife.
MAHLER:
I think we got that bit wrong.
ALMA:
Which bit?
MAHLER:
That da-da-di-da-tum-ti-da-da there was something
wrong.
ALMA:
Look it up.
MAHLER:
What? You don't imagine I've got any Franz Lehar
in the house, do you?
ALMA:
But you did enjoy it, Gustl?
MAHLER:
Every minute. Idon't care how it was done. Iloved
every singer - every cardboard tree -
ALMA:
So did I. Our one night out, in five years! It ought
to be chronicled S omewhere, for the historians. And
The Merry Widow, not Lohengrin or the Parsifal.
MAHLER:
I tell you what, we can go to Doblinger's tomorrow and
I'll ask about the sales of my music, and while I'm doing
that you can thumb through The Merry Widow and see
where we went wrong, then we can dance it again tomorrow
night.
ALMA:
I had the impression we floated - you held me - . f
(A child's cry - disturbed sleep -
in the distance.
MAHLER turns and stares at her.
Silence)
MAHLER:
Almsehilt what's that?
ALMA:
Gustav! Don't look like that! Gustav!
Thui i
Nts
was
MAHLER:
Who is it, for God's sake, who is it?
utto kmm
hana,
ALMA:
It's a little
A The English nurse scalded her
fingers this morning.
MAHLER:
It's more than fingers! Go and see!
(She gets up, under the influence of
his wild eyes.


A savage phrase from the Kindertotenlieder
comes bursting over. He seems to stare
into the music itself. ALMA rushes off, right.
The music dies. He continues to stand there.
ALMA reappears from where she went, quiet)
MAHLER:
(contd)
(stating it, without looking at her) It's a fever.
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
The doctor's coming?
ALMA:
Yes. Mummy's looking after her.
MAHLER:
And Putzerl?
Lue 4
ALMA:
She's asleep.
Alme
5 t
MAHLER:
hotisaa
Calm?
Ryp
ALMA:
Yes.
fear
MAHLER:
Not flushed?
ALMA:
MAHLER:
Come and sit down.
(She returns to her chair, while he
Mmlenuars
immobile)
Ruic
remains there,
Rehad
summaned
clomlulai
eptired me Gato his office today.
ALMA:
Yes ?
MAHLER:
Somebody stole my appointments book and took it to him.
It said, 'After Easter, three concerts in Rome. 1 He said
I wasn't allowed to do concerts in the Opera House's time.
He told me box office receipts always fell off when I' m
away. I told him this wasn't true. They want me out.
It has nothing to do with Rome. They've finished with
me! The Germans are finished with me too! They've
had enough of my standards! When you're as demanding
as I am you tread on too many toes and in the end they
surround you - they need a lower level, you see,
it makes them feel more at home.
I've been there ten years near enough. It's time to go.
ALMA:
It's because you stood by Alfred Roller. You stand by
him whatever he does.


MAHLER:
Because he's the finest designer in Europe.
ALMA:
Yes, but making the Rhine Maidens sing from hanging
baskets -!
MAHLER:
(with a shrug) It's only because they's so fat - they're
afraid the ropes'll break =
Jertt
They are about to laugh when the child's
Mwa
cry interrupts again)
He Hms 1
Tle
There!
Fal!
drtd
The second blow! I said there were three! L
The first my dismissal - no money - nowhere to go -
And then (staring off, to the right) - the second -
ALMA:
Don't make it happen! LYou should never have written
those songs on the death of children!
MAHLER:
a a the-hero-low
(The last m ovement of the Sixth
Symphony is heard briefly in the
distance. 'The three blows'are
The thre Hesteg a
Mhatlag Yhe Ran
Silence.
lay!
A bell rings from inside the house,
right)
Thal
What's thatfor God's sake?
ALMA:
Gustav! (getting up) It's only the doctor. I told
mummy to ring the bell when he came.
(She hurries out right.
He goes and alumps into a chair)
MAHLER:
(calling after her suddenly) I've never heard-that-bell
before!
Adagins
(Silence)
AMA(VO)
Gustav! You're ma king it happen! Gustav!
(Silence)
MAHLER:
I've never been able to talk to You. Is this Your only
way?


(ALMA has reappeared).
ALMA:
He says Putzerl has a fever too.
Wan
MAHLER:
It's diptheria. Ava thue
Tuckeslary
ALMA:
Yes.
Why
do You want her so soon ? Icould have stood dismissal
from the Opera House - that was right - You must take
me away from the centres of power, yes! Iagree with
that! - but my child! -
You aren't just!"
AFthought-I-hac-
once
ther got-swept-upin-lie. again, atthe
Opera-House yds,-it-was-right-totake-me-away-from
theren
(The bell sounds again)
Ouldor
Mabler:
Don't go!
Kell
ALMA:
It's my child -!
TAPE ! Rlma ' Hw esuld
(She hurries out right again) HERAG
MAHLER:
(talking to her in her absence) I willed it, yes. I
suppose I must have done. I must need her to die.
Little Putzerl must need it too. She never belonged
here. It was only a visit. She and I belonged to each
lmpaf other because I'm only on a visit too. The earth wasn't
for her, you see. And she decides to go before me. She
doesn't need to stay, to go through all this. Her will
works that way. Quick - where's my Schopenhauer?
(fixing his spectacles properly, hunting blindly about)
(ALMA screams, off.
MAHLER dashes off, left, stumbling,
his spectacles falling.
Silence.
There is the sound of a gay Italian
barrel organ in the distance.
ALMA enters from the right, upstage
of the staircase. She is dressed smartly
in black, a touch of the American in her
style. She looks round quickly, then
hurries over to the personal area)


ALMA:
(in a hushed voice) Mummy! For God's sake call the
hall porter and ask him to stop that hurdy-gurdy! He's
composing.
gre - nolde (She glances anxiously upstage, right.
The barrel
organ continues. She sits
Lovis
on one of the lower steps of the stair-
Rrre
case, enjoying the sound.
It suddenly cuts to a stop)
mil
(disappointed) Oh!
(Silence.
She buries her head in her hands)
Thank youmummy.
(There are the sounds of traffic in the
distance - automobiles. She strains
to listen. There is a snatch of
'classical' jazz - Buddy Bolden or Jelly-Roll
Morton or Bunk Johnson - being played on
someone'sradio or phonograph. She strains
after it, but that too goes.
MAHLER comes in very slowly from the
right, upstage of the staircase. He is
looking for her. He is in a dressing gown
and his steps are deliberately slow)
MAHLER:
What a lovely sound.
ALMA:
What ?
MAHLER:
That barrel organ. It reminded me of my childhood.
And then he suddenly stops. (going towards the chaise
longue, left) The moment I lean back to remember
which means to forget - he stops.
bleas ha
(He lies down on the chaise longue lack
carefully, sighing)
(gazing across at her) Why do you sit outside the door
all day?
ALMA:
To hear New York, down below.
thae
lac t der tL
iraefo
hane
ablik Ll


MAHLER:
You could take a lift downstairs, sit in the foyer.
ALMA:
My duty's with you.
(Silence)
MAHLER:
(musing) And mine's with the Metropolitan Opera
House! TheseMet designersàre bloody awful. We
need an Alfred Rollerhere.
ALMA:
He's having trouble, you said - he wrote from Vienna -
the savages are collecting round him - ?
MAHLER:
Yes. They'll send him packing soon. But the whole
menagerie won't last long - the royal opera house,
royalty itself - none of it.
(The traffic sounds - 1907 klaxons
drift up again)
You like those noises?
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
You like this city, don't you?
ALMA:
It's divine.
MAHLER:
(chuckling) They built it against the divine. That
was the whole idea. They ran away from divine
right - of kings, aristocracies. So how is New
York divine?
olod
Cn kid 2
5 tte pun
(vesi
nevenco
ALMA:
uerhe bigness. Thé free waythey have of talking. delt
arl
Nothing scratching and nibbling at me like in Vienna.
I feel unknown - everything feels positive -
clil ld
MAHLER:
With everybody knowing that the Mahlers live on the
eleventh floor of the Majestic - you feel unknown?
ALMA:
We're respected.
MAHLER:
More than in Vienna ?
ALMA: sueie We were worshipped there. And it doesn't make you
feel good. The slave can turn. The Viennese didn't
e ues
come to your last concert.
Ahr: nppwt,
Can . m
the Mave


Alma : - aw a #2.8
Ore L
MAHLER:
You look a woman.
tno stl
usm J
ALMA:
What?
aile
MAHLER:
A woman. o Dazzling, attractive - the kind of woman
awful men get excited over - (he stops with a smile).
ALMA:
Life's simpler. Only one child now. No Ministry
of Music at the back of everything.
MAHLER:
You're even happy.
ALMA:
You must change for the Met.
MAHLER:
(sitting up carefully) What made me ask that damned
doctor in Maiernigg to examine me? Do you remember
I laughed when I asked him ? And he gives me a
sentence of death.
leroha
(The steps of a slow procession from
the street below)
ne ul
ALMA:
Listen.
MAHLER:
A procession. Nothing supernatural happens here.
It's a rally or something.
(She goes to the window, upstage, and
looks down)
th e xelde D
ALMA:
It's a funeral. There's a huge crowd.
(The tap of a drum hushes the crowd.
We hear a man addressing them.. We
cannot make his words out)
MAHLER:
What does he say?
ALMA:
I think it's that fireman who died heroically. It
was in the papers.
(MAHLER joins her at the window.
Another tap of the drum)
qan
arche ma lames Kere
MAHLER:
(on his way out, right) Imust use that drum-tap one
day. (stopping) A great change came over you in
Paris. When Ossip Gabrilovitch fell in love with
you. The dear man. It brought you back to life.


(She does not move.
He leaves)
ALMA:
Gustav. I can see Putzi.
(She wanders towards the left,
Iwl -
upstage, peering closely)
I could swear!
Puty
(She goes towards the staircase
but
at the first
to turn
-delfy,
stops
step
round again).
It is! Come on then, quickly - your daddy's
rehearsing! Putzi, Putzi!
(The sound of a tuning orchestra
sweeps up with great violence.
She gasps, turns towards the archway)
Gustl! It was - couldn't you come just a - ?
(The conductor's desk is rapped with
a jarring sharpness)
MAHLER: (vo)
Isolde, from your entrance please - and could
we keep the backstage noise down - :
(She runs up to the arch and disappears
through it.
The tuning has ceased. No music.
Instead of music there is the sound
of a tremendous blizzard.
It rises to a threatening climax)
(off, left) Alma! Alma!
(The blizzard continues. She does
not appear.
MAHLER staggers in from the left.
He is dressed with unusual elegance -
top hat, cloak and white gloves.
He is covered with snow. He gasps,
stumbles forward.


he huidale
hydr:
honn ( hissod J hi Ye, Lis nihien).
hTt tn -
Aal
Le Hasl L
hom


The blizzard cuts off.
He walks carefully to the table.
He peels off his white g. loves slowly,
and then pulls out his watch. He
takes his pulse. He grunts - he
is only moderately satisfied with the
result.
He thens remembers he has his hat and
cloak on. He begins taking them off.
ALMA appears from the right in a
nightdress. He throws his hat and
cloak on to a chair)
Jne en io
ALMA:
Gustl! It's past two o'clock!
like et yhon
MAHLER:
(lowering himself onto the chaise longue) Mm.
ALMA:
Were you that man stumbling about ? - clutching the fruthe,
eul Not i Ce T
falling in a heapk - was watching from the
Perty bedroom window.
Rorn
MAHLER:
(putting his head back with a sigh) Yes. I was that dijan
man.
) ab eld
uan
ALMA:
You see, dangers every where. On us all the time!
c) al
MAHLER:
Iv was warned about these New York blizzards. Go 6 ck
to bed, darling. The doctor said you mustn't leave
your bed.
wae
Thaet tu
(She approaches him instead)
ALMA:
Isaw her again. In the corridor. I peeped out-
side!
MAHLER:
I - hear her voice.
Corere
ALMA:
(touching him) Your poor hands!
MAHLER:
I left Karl Bitter's just after midnight. They all
got drunk. I was disgusted.. Why do people have
to do that? I got a cab. Alma - it blew over!
Can you imagine it? And I crawled from underneath.
And the cabby was drunk too -
ALMA :
(beginning to laugh) No!


Rrep isrmay I like a hehm
Hom retam
Cosels
Cavenatoi : Career, te amns
mud Ae itmiag, - te lefene urto?
khi ixhansoi, letachue rehove,
tov I.
Death yoi
H vevivel, yalnyy 0 xpedlel
Ae chaiv- lach l Y Lg
idypelos tK
diiun t
ufp han)


MAHLER:
I lost my glasses. We were fishing around in the
snow for them. The snow stings you like wasps here.
I had to cling to the railings.
(They laugh together.
Silence)
ALMA:
Conried died then.
MAHLER:
Yes. They offered me the Metropolitan. I turned
it down. They're giving it to Toscanini - he's a
good man but do you know what - he wants to conduct
Tristan. After a production like mine! It was the
finest Hare ever COmE
rex a = about. All-those
at S
ever- miles ahead of any Tristan I did in Vienna.
ALMA:
You take things so much easier now. You'd never have
agreed to cuts in Vienna. And I remember how you were
if anybody came in late.
MAHLER:
Our little girl taught me such a lot - by dying. Nothing's
so important any more, on this side. (Ruse)
lt's tte
ALMA:
We should sell Maiernigg.
memories.
Mummy and I found a lovely old farmhouse at Toblach
when we were last in Europe.
MAHLER:
I liked what Max Burkhart said the other day - 'Death
exists if you believe in it, and I don't'.
ALMA:
A t He's dying.
MAHLER:
(with a sudden laugh) That old trout - what was her
name? - the wife of the shipping magnate - she said
is it true that Wagner treated Listz with-appalling
ingratitude ? 'What's that?' I said. "So Wagner has
a-bad reputation? And what does Tristan mean to you? ? 1
ALMA:
Yes, we all heard you. A woman asked me, 'Does he
always make a scene at dinner ? !
MAHLER:
You see, Im ade the scene.. Not her, with her lies
about how Tristan moved her so-much she couldn't
sleep at nights! Not the lie but the truth makes a
scene. That's how their minds work = from the
Balkans to Philadelphia.


SLe vecil,
ihinl nr cat alny He
kear, te magle
ls - tho Kyucu (-hh-
anl Ripttam)
Amanin. 8 d
colta
Inr 2
dolo
caleais).
feeliy Hlas tay L.
4 ifkit HELS2
n ittle
gir!
t Dare. 1,
L ts
uttl, Uriel, Cnvrata dofay
alo n
hot rel, b es - L
leti
hyml
lyp F hi enern yo
L see - veake >l . -
- m kro euen huun'c A la
Ha Bodg. le - Se a
a a .
à fde ju
WLI bropl
aluv enalals


ALMA:
People are so light here. They take you to their
hearts. Isee you never missa dinner party
nowadays. And you dress so beautifully.
MAHLER:
We must give up the-flat in Vienna.
AI LMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
Andlive in Toblach. A nice farmhouse you say ? : Tanel
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
Does Anna miss her sister? A
PAUSE
ALMA:
It must be dawn, Took.
MAHLER:
Ifeel I'm sinking further and further.
TE E
And you look fresh for the voyagen rack
young!
Ihad
ALMA:
Bodansky came to me with tears in his eyes. He said
'I shall never love a woman like I love Mahler'.
MAHLER:
(taughingsuddenly-again) That night- -Iarrived for
my First Symphony I found that the goodladies of
the orchestral committee, being honest Daughters
of the Revolution, had-massed the brassall round
my feet and-the strings in a circle round the back, to
get a pretty effect! Still, it didn't matter, theaudience
didn't get. a thing any.way
ALMA:
ook
orc
back at t'hree n ne orn aing C radiant.
Nerr
MAHLER:
R my-ehildren. And their critics are
0mce Unlike-the-Viennese.ones. And-the-French, Stel
> AAMA: Remember, the time Debussy walked out ofn-Second
Symphony with his friends ? Saidit was alf too
Lere -
Schubertian for them, too Viennese, too foreign. too
Slav'ay What nonsense people do talk! Trying to make ai
MAMAER:
it seem there's a right way of doing things I- one way!
on this side!
MoVer
ALMA:
they-enjoyed-your-eondueting-of-Fidelio:
ukngw esea muhe fudes
MAHLER:
e a eonducting that's nothing.
are
5E You-see,, Tristan-and,. Stel
Fidelio, they're only the discarded husk of
our lives - they're like the bodyy_they're what a man
leaves behind. But they fade. What doesn't fade is
what a man is/ The
nvoke-that That's
vhywe
torms. Aimschili, you must always


Puis
hovemar oreef 2
Alml
- 7A S
Rold rapuce a k Le EU
Na Zon T verhi -


MAHLER:
try to exert that inner force of yours - spread yourself -
(contd)
never stint your beauty - always try and bring out the
light inside - (he yawns)
et ers
ave
adip.
Tallachllte hi ice
You-shouldn'e
tamle Le ?
HLER:
ama:
Alittle-one,
Yer!
But-no-underwater-swimming.
te laduer
Ipromiser
ripergps Lerelas
LER-raises himself-stowly He-goes
IY hnenl
upstage of-the-staircase-and-out-of-sight.
axik-6u
We hear birds, echoing voices across
the lake. Hammering. A dog barks.
hella dere 2
ALMA goes to the left and takes up
his hat and cloak)
ALMA:
(calling left) Anna! Anna darling! It's time to wake
up! Amadnchinl
(ALMA goes out left.
e1s boutt
atk-towar ds the lake but-then-stops
He looks round for ALMA. Silence)
MAHLER:
Alma'. Alma! (with increasing alarm) Alma!
(ALMA appears from the left. The 1S
nowdressedina abright dierndl.
She stands looking at him)
I- thought you had gone .
ALMA:
Gone ?
He-stumps-intoa sitting position-en
the-lowest-step)
MAHLER:
(tooking-across the-lake)ineed-youtou.to-be-here-In case
Jmneedi-the-boat:
FEMA
MAHLER:
(glancing at her) You were in the house?
Imsese m
ALMA:
Yessl with Anna.


(Silence)
MAHLER:
Help-me-please: (as-she-comes-to-him)
Almschilitzil! I have this
longing for you -
Ijust think of you and feel this terrifie joy - it's
when I'm travelling, when I'm here a few feet from
you - ay-eeneerts, everybody-t 29 see
back
toyou! wen iin Ma Rat
8 Soyh,
gilgensh a
k Zla - inb (
(She helps raise him to his feet)
whuc
ALMA:
Gustl - Ican't bear this tense life any more! theteu - re
MAHLER:
(putting his arm round her) There - it won't last Zl-
much longerC the tense part 7
tuiihorll
ALMA:
Why not ?
laue hee esteli
- ty A Ne Zole xee
MAHLER:
(walking out) Oh, Imean the Symphony. It'll be
finished soon,) And then we'll be free, take a
Toblach.
lerein
holiday =
TRe hell nies * He gre C
passes out
ew, upstage
lefty.
M : ruso.
ALMA:
Den't-swim-out-too-far.
MAHLER:
foff)-Ipromise!
(She stands looking before her.
Then-she-seems-te-remember
something.- She-turns-slowly,
leoking off-left)
ALMA(VO)
Foom 117.
(She goes off, downstage left.
Silence.
ALMA's laughter, off, as she
play ys with her child)
(off) Annalinchien!
Annalinchien!
(Suddenly the bell rings, loud
and startling, from the right.
MAHLER appears upstage left, in
panic.


Bateph328-9.
He-peerg/found, fixing his spectacles.
He gazes with horror off, right. He stands
quite still. He then goes slowly towards
the right, as if obeying someone's sign. He
goes out of sight, upstage of the staircase,
like a hypnotised man)
MAHLER:
(off) Thank you.
(He returns breaking open a letter in a
feverish way. He reads it with trembling
hands)
Alma! Alma!
(ALMA comes running in from the left
with a bath towel over her arm)
ALMA:
Iwent to get your towel.
MAHLER:
Look!
(He holds the letter out to her with
trembling hands)
It's from the architect who fell in love with youAt
Bel
the Tobelbad sanatorium." When youwere illIsaid
at the time you were hiding something look, he's
addressed it to me! He wants my wife! What can I
say? He wants to come here and talk it over! Is that
lay
the kind of impression he gets of your closeness to me,
your need for me - your loyalty - kindness - the
children we've had - and the poor dead clild a
ALMA:
I was tired and broken down and he sympathised: He
sympathised!. Yes!
MAHLER:
Sympathised with the fact that you're married to me -
instead of to a
who designs brick walls!
(drilling it into her at close quarters) I told you didn't
peneed
I, it won't take much longer - it's almost finished I-
and then you'll be free!
ALMA:
Why only me ?
MAHLER:
Both of us, yes - both of us free!
(He stalks off)
ALMA:
And don't walk so fast - the doctor said not to!
heank to a


MAHLER I : Almam (vo) Emel ha *
Municl. Its the Aaroal - te duen foud
Sita fur alay ha side.(on Voics) Amal
nead
Burwavads L4
C1e)
zisl
unttedl / haed hyg
(Oun voica) Almal
Alnam(Va)
Makls tayca le Le L Mani :l
stau
Ie te
kwav. 2 A à rlv toud Silt
fr -
ade lasapatont lbia)
Alme!
CYo
Al Ima
u Heed he V hnld L h -
E mnHen


MAHLER:
off) To hell with doctors, and architects too, and all
the dead professions!
by-disly
ALMA:
Do you remember how you said spring couldn't last
for ever? So you pushed me into winter! You didn't
even look at me! It was the Fifth and the Sixth and
the Seventh and the Eighth - the Song of the Earth -
the Song of Children - dead children - before it happened -
never a song about me! Always music = not me! not even
your own life! Do you wonder I needed a bit of warming
sunlight? And he was there! He looked at me! He showed
me who I was, with his eyes!
(She looks at the letter, then carefully
folds it. She whirls round, holding it,
in a brief recollection of the waltz she
danced with MAHLER. She goes off,
left. Again we hear her laughter as
she plays with her child)
(off) Annalinchien!
(A great threatening burst of applause
comes over from beyond the arch. But
the archway is dark, plunged in gl loom.
Theapplause, with frequent Bis!, begins to
die. The gloom increases.
Silence.
MAHLER appears under the arch, in
tails. He is haggard, bent. He gazes
down the staircase. He begins walking, R.
almost stumbling down. His feet fall
heavily and loudly. He reaches centre stage.
He continues across to the table. He holds
his throat. He is sweating)
MAHLER:
Doctor!
(Silence. He looks allround)
Alma! Alma!
(He begins weeping. He sinks to the
Toor)
ALMA:
(off, right) Gustav!
(He makes no reply, lyingquite still)


(ALMA enters upstage of the staircase,
right. She is in travelling clothes.
She stands gazing at him,
collafose
Gustav,
MAHLER:
(stirring for the first time) It's this damned fever.
And my throat burns.
ALMA :
Why do you always let yourself fall?
MAHLER:
It's better nearer the earth.
(She undoes his waistc oat, loosens
his tie)
You decided to come HANA
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
1 If you'd left me I should have died. I'm dead if you
don't love me! It took you a long time deciding. I
went everywhere we used to go - along the Rhine -
Iremembered everyspot - we were so happy - it was
like being with you again L
V A * pr
get
ALMA:
Shall I
the doctor ?
MAHLER:
He's on the other side of Munich.
a only doctor you see, the sweating's
stopped. Those damned cars outside - they keep
me awake -
ALMA:
I don't hear anything. You alarm yourself so much I
MAHLER:
Oaly-beeause Lheliave-imin-dim not going to controll
it, want the fever to rise I believe in it loving
you - Iwant to give way to it- runtil takes meto
ALMA:
But why ? I'm here!


TiMeeh wLa 2.18
GWen L
MAHLER:
It'sthe
whent 8 - RE E my hut and-you're fifty yards
away, IAe hreto get a visit from you. It's because) ou're
amay - -
M nevef really with me any more. 6ometimessyoi-don't
ceme-forhours: If you're not there in the front row I
che-a - E over
ad get a fever, and my throat gets
coated. And I adore the pain! I know what Tristan
i means - how can Tristan die while he loves Isolde?
ALMA :
Why so much darkness always, and dying - ?
MAHLER:
Not always. Only now, because you no longer respond.
Will you do something
for me?
ALMA:
Yes?
A hay
MAHLER:
Will you lie There, and sleep? You caught a late train.
ALMA:
Yes.
(She lies on the chaise longue after
taking off her travelling coat. He
places the coat over her carefully)
It worries me so much.
(She closes her eyes. She begins to
breathe evenly. He raises himself
with effort and stands looking down
at her.
The drum tap comes - the same as that
heard for the funeral procession in
New York. And then once again.
Silence)
(waking suddenly) Gustl! You're so white! Don't
stand there!
MAHLER:
I don't want to miss you breathing pus
Fink-you-in-
ALMA:
(with a sigh) It tires me so much!
(She falls asleep again. MAHLER 21 Ce
continues to watch over her. She
wakes again)
L ceh,
Icould never leave you - I couldn't imagine living
with anybody else -
MAHLER
AU You've-raised-me-up-again you've-given mea
bitmore life!
(He sits down, still gazing at her.
She sleeps again)


MAHLER:
How desparately she loves him. A damned architect.
Lre Ms Ln
(Silence)
Tha
Alma.
ALMA:
Yes ?
MAHLER:
Shall we walk?
ALMA:
If you like.
MAHLER:
The air's so good.
(She gets up and then helps him
to his feet. He puts her cloak round
her shoulders and they walk arm in
arm very slowly upstage)
The doctor said my throat's full of streptococci.
ALMA:
What?
MAHLER:
Like a marsh full of frogs, he said! Isaid is that
Plmg
how love expresses itself - in streptococci? He gave
me such a funny look.
Lluaink loo d I - Told us
ALMA:
It's that English nurse!/ She had a throat infection
and-didn'tsay-anything-about-its I knew you'd catch
it some time.
MAHLER:
(showing her his hand) You see, Istill have your ring.
vever
I kiss it every day - in the middle of the night -
ALMA:
You stole it fromme.
MAHLER:
I looked at your songs too. Between rehearsals.
They're marvellous.
ALMA: dell-
I've carried them about with me for ten years, my
little coffin of unwanted songs!
th y lalle un Home Leseulme L
MAHLER:
We'll have them performed.
ALMA:
(gazing at him) You seem to mean it.
MAHLER:
Take me to
tue,
the hut l'ue gr the Sogs
ALMA:
You're weak, weak!


Ye nt, ur Re smp. Le
faunto 2 Raudr,
(She-takes-him-to-the-chaise-longue
and-he-lies-down. Shecovers him-with
her-eloak. Silence)-
ALMA:
You look sO beautiful, like Alexander the Great.
(contd)
That black hair - your lips are so red -
MAHLER:
When I get better you can go on looking after me,
I enjoy it So much.
ALMA:
You thought I hadn't suffered enough once. Well,
now I have.
MAHLER:
(nodding) Sorrow's put its mark on your face. That's
what makes beauty.
ALMA:
ret
ve. we sbe hap
We'll take a rest, Stcl
go somewhere like Egypt:
MAHLER:
Yes. Royalties are beginning to trickle in from my
music. America was a great help there. So there'll
ath
€ be money.
le Larne 5 - A1
ALMA:
All the way from Paris to Vienna there were reporters,
the
dleppi
waiting for
train to stop, asking how you were,as ttagh
Yynil jm
a king.
MAHLER:
And the flowers from my Philharmonic, that was
something, eh ?
ENAr smee Amerien.
ALMA:
You look so elegant always,) You never used to.
MAHLER:
I believe in shining, nowadays. Like I said to you
once, 'spread yourself', never let a single faculty
get squeezed small. When I remember my early days,
when people tried to squeeze me small, therascals
7 the
But I must have wished it. All
my life
pàper, Almschili.
was
ueg prop
ALMA:
Only because you see it like that just at this moment.
MAHLER:
It makes me tremendously happy to have got ill for
you =
ALMA:
I'd rather have you well! Gustl!
MAHLER:
- and love you less?
ALMA:


MAHLER:
Who are you going to marry if I die? Hans Pfizner,
Ossip, Charpentier - they've all been in love with you
at some time or other! But what an intolerable lot
to live with. There's not one of them wouldn't
drive you mad in a day! Aren'tIthe safest bet in the
end?
ALMA:
Yes!
MAHLER:
I'd better stay with you, then, and not die.
ALMA:
Your eyes are so big!
mind
lalaop?
Mahlw:
(He sleeps.
She sits looking at him. She settles
the cloak round him better. Then she
too nods asleep.
MAHLER wakes and sits up)
MAHLER:
(quietly) I've got it right.
ALMA:
(starting awake) What?
MAHLER:
I'll show it to you. Look.
(He gets up, without a trace of
difficulty, and pulls her to her feet.
He begins dancing with her, the Merry
Widow waltz)
ALMA:
(stopping) Gustav - Gustav - you've got a fever!
MAHLER:
I'm all right! I told you, it comes and goes. It's
nothing physical. Just look at me and see!
ALMA:
(giving him wild kisses) You're astonishing - an
astonishing astonishing husband!
(They laugh. They dance again - A new
the same light, deft and unreal steps /x cit
as before. Only this time they do not
dance on the stairs. And there is no luome
music - only MAHLER humming)
A nr
MAHLER:
Like this! Da-dum : There!
/ake
(They laugh together in the old way.
Their dancing becomes extravagant, d
nearly grotesque. There is no sign at
all of a sick man in MAHLER.


They whirl to a close)
MAHLER:
Now I think I'll sleep.
(contd)
ALMA:
I'll sit with you for a little bit more.
(He lies down again. He is panting
with pleasure, smiling at her. She
sits gazing at him.
REHEARSAL
THIS
For
He closes his eyes. She nods asleep
too.
His hands flicker as if conducting.
The fever mounts again. He seems
Lon
to struggle for breath. Then he subsides
Look
again. ALMA continues sleeping
peacefully.
Again his hands twitch, conducting)
MAHLER:
(in a whisper) Mozart! Mozart!
6 lim 62
(He smiles. He sleeps again.
A drum tap wakes her with a start.
She looks across at MAHLER slowly)
ALMA:
her:
Gustav. (no reply) Gustl. (she jumps up) Gustav,
no! Gustav, not yet! Gustav!
kncels
(She shakes him. He is dead)
(rushing out, left) Mummy! Mummy!
guithk
(Stillness)
(off) He won't speak to me any more, mummy!
(Stillness.
The flicker of candles upstage of
the staircase, right, as ALMA, dressed
in black now, carries in a triple -stemmed
candelabra. She sets it down on the table.
MAHLER has disappeared)
(as she sets down the candelabra) I remember when we
lach
pleare pus


soir
Tue
diplen
sffaneye
wts/onrngu
ALMA:
married - oh and for years afterwards - I was
(contd)
paralysed with shyness whenever he came in the
room. And yet I did open out at the end - for other
men. Two more husbands - a heavy responsibility.
Gustav did perform a song of mine, in New York.
Wrong time, wrong place. I suppose I gave the
other two - three if you count the one I didn't marry
- what he taught me. He talked and talked! Goethe,
Plato, everything! That's where he died. (nodding
lu uutly
towards the chaise longue) I won't go near it.
bed y
They're all dead now, except
CDT
tne
ene-l-didn't-manay He L H-lest-fer-eves, (shouting)
Ammat Stop that child of yours playing with a dirty
rag doll! (she peers round the stage) Where is she?
lioi
And that English nurse - the brave unflinching bitch
who gave my husband his throat infection. Didn't
tell me she had it, because she didn't want to bother
ghs pn
me! (fiercely) Throw that dirty filthy doll away!
Marine! I know why gom-mothreynever let you
She
nop
speak German - oh don" tworry, I've got little eyes
in my arse! - she said, 'I don't want my child hear- Icu 1 T
ing all the awful things Alma says about people!'
Well, I'll just put my feet up. (lowering herself on
to the chaise longue) Tipped my handbag out into her
hands - thousands of dollars. Mahler royalties.
Yes! Who says there's a bottle of Benedictine under
my bed? Who says I drink a bottle of Benedictine a
day? It's rot! Of course I like the stuff. And I do
drink it. They said, You'llkill yourself! I said,
what? I'm an old hand at death! Three of them
passed away in my arms! Yes! I remember how
Katia Mann came to the house dressed for his
funeral - I think it was Werfel's - and I said, I
never go to their funerals. No, I never went.
(blowing out the candles) Ah! that's good. (as she
lies down) But don't think I'm going to die. u nxish
The Cal ACO
(She lies quite still. Suddenly she tries
to struggle into the sitting position but
kat! (panic-stricken glances round) It's
the English' nurse! Oh! She's come to get me - no!
- I don't want to die! - don't let me die! Oh!
(Her scream dies away, and she lies
there panting. Stillness. She closes
her eyes. She is quite still)
(waking again) No! No!
Cecau Le
L s 2
lui col


(MAHLER appears at the top of the stair-
case, under the arch, in tails, remote,
frail)
MAHLER:
(softly) Alma. (no reply) Alma.
ALMA:
(peering up the stairs) Who the devil's that? Franz!
Franz! Walter! It's Walter - It's Gustav! Gustav!
MouT uhme
MAHLER:
Come.
3 lh Cyp VAL stepo La vdvesis)
(ALMA raises herself from the chaise
longue and slowly goes up the steps to
him.
The phrase from the Tenth Symphony
where the drum tap is used steals
over.
She stands before MAHLER. He takes
her hand. The music dies away)
It's over now. You see, it didn't hurt did it?
ALMA:
MAHLER:
I'll take you back to the world again shall I?
(They walk lightly and remotely down
the steps, holding hands)
ALMA:
(as they walk) Where are the other two?
MAHLER:
Your husbands?
ALMA:
Yes.
MAHLER:
(with a smile) Somewhere.
ALMA:
(peering at him) Are you really - ?
MAHLER:
Well?
ALMA:
Franz ? Franz ? No, it is Gustav!
MAHLER:
Does it matter?
ALMA:
No. Like you said once - it all fades, even the music!
MAHLER:
What a devil of a life we led each other.


ALMA:
Yes!
(They laugh together, gazing into each
other's eyes)
2 distrmgse cretu
teeliye are
nih A aphu
a HLL ill :
L lea Lm
LlT
3 ypan calupse
ich i
wmd war
Lo thei teely
deshy @
ss rus
entacs
maned uh
ave Wtt
do bob veupine
wat Hae,
C Le uunc
ur Liie L
makohi
- k +LL
Kinw