THEATER REVIEW: Mengelberg and Mahler at Shakespeare & Company
Theater
Mengelberg and Mahler
By Daniel Klein
Directed by Emile Fallaux
(Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Mass., 186 seats, $16-$48)
A Shakespeare & Company production of a play in one act
Robert Lohbauer as Willem Mengelberg
Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck
Shakespeare & Company actor Robert Lohbauer ably portrays Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, caught up in the tragedy of the Nazi occupation of Holland during WWII, in Mengelberg and Mahler, a skillfully crafted one-man show written by Daniel Klein.
For fifty years Willem Mengelberg was the esteemed conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, known, among other accomplishments, for performing the music of Jewish composer Gustav Mahler, who was a close friend. But during the Nazi occupation, he was forced to make a series of difficult decisions and compromises, many involving Jewish musicians and Jewish composers. Once the war was over, the Dutch government labeled his activities collaboration and he was sent into exile in Switzerland, separated from his beloved orchestra.
The set is a simple one; three groupings of furniture placed on the stage area of the black-box style Bernstein Theatre: a worktable and chair; the conductor’s podium with music stand and score at the ready; and a worn chaise, large Victrola, two chairs, and waist-high stacks of sheet music. When the play begins, it is 1947, and Mengelberg is awaiting word from the Dutch government about the length of his exile; he hopes to return to Amsterdam and to his orchestra.
Lohbauer, in a poignant and affecting performance as Mengelberg, travels back and forth in time, conversing, sometimes arguing with Mahler; dealing with the Nazi commander during the occupation; and speaking, always, of the music and his orchestra. He remembers Mahler visiting Amsterdam and being entranced by the sound of a hurdy-gurdy on the street; and he recalls talking to Mahler about passages of music written to express Mahler’s great love for his wife, described as a tenderness that “fills the universe,” an emotion that Mengelberg cannot imagine. Mengelberg’s passion is all for the music.
Lohbauer as Mengelberg rants, he complains, he despairs, and he defends his actions. In Lohbauer’s hands, we see a man who has been the celebrated maestro, always in a position of authority, who is undone by his exile and the loss of his profession, of the music.
The director, Emile Fallaux, is a Dutch journalist and filmmaker whose parents were part of the Dutch Resistance. He has given us a fascinating production, beautifully paced and structured, but one without a clear-cut answer to the question of Mengelberg’s guilt; we see a character caught in a terrible moral dilemma.
The play is expanded and amplified beyond the confines of Mengelberg’s home in exile by generous passages from the works of Mahler and by projections of photographs from the war years.
Klein’s writing is marvelous; in ninety minutes he gives us two fully-realized characters: Mengelberg and Mahler, who we never see or hear except through the words of Mengelberg. Klein, who lives here in the Berkshires, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, and he has mined his lifelong interest in philosophy—and in music—to tell the story of Mengelberg.
The play is provocative, prompting one to wonder “What would I do” in such a situation, and what should Mengelberg have done? Did he deserve the punishment meted out to him? Was he right to value his art, the music, above all else? The questions are relevant and the play, this production, is riveting.
Set and costume design, Govane Lohbauer; Lighting design, Stephen Ball; Sound design, Michael Pfeiffer; Stage manager, Kate Johnson
(Through September 10; running time 85 minutes, no intermission)
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