REVIEW: THE DEDICATION by Claire Novello at White Bear Theatre 1 – 12 October 2024

‘History buffs will enjoy the diversions, but the central story would have been better served by streamlining some elements.’ ★★★

The Dedication opens with a scene that should be a moment of celebration for the characters. Gustav Mahler, conductor and composer, is indeed jubilant as he returns home from the first performance of his 8^th Symphony. But his wife, Alma, struggles to share in his jubilation. Something weighs on her. The remainder of the play takes us back in time, first to the pair’s courtship and then to a series of key moments in their marriage. It sets out to build a picture of what led to Alma Mahler’s attitude towards her marriage and her life – one which is at best conflicted and at worst deeply dissatisfied. In so doing, the play explores the social pressures women were under in the early 1900s, where their beauty was often the only thing that gave them social currency. It also explores Alma’s relationship with her artistic talent. She could have chosen a different life, one without Gustav Mahler but with the possibility of her own music career. However, despite the urgings of her teacher Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alma seems uncertain of her own artistic talents – a feeling that most artists are likely familiar with.

The play is ambitious, running at over two hours and spanning a decade in the lives of its characters. Certain elements of the direction are deployed effectively to help carry us along on this journey. A highlight was the use of sound and movement to evoke various locations – from cafés to concert halls. However, the play struggles at times under the weight of the history it sets out to explore. In an effort to include many of the characters that touched on the lives of the Mahlers, and many of the events that affected (or afflicted) them, the play at times strays from the essential elements of its central relationship.  History buffs will enjoy the diversions into, for example, Gustav Klimt’s fight against ‘outdated’ attitudes towards his art, but with a long run-time, one wonders if the central story would have been better served by streamlining some elements. 

The actors do an excellent job of tackling the demands of the play. Rebecca Bugeja has to map an exceptionally challenging series of emotional ups and downs (mostly downs) in her role as Alma Mahler. Bugeja also wins the award for most convincing mime playing of the piano. Stephen Riddle as Mahler paints a kindly, almost naive picture of a man for whom life is so straightforward. The simple and devastating fact is that it seems never to have occurred to him that asking Alma to give up her ambitions as a musician in order to be his wife might be a cruelty. The remainder of the cast have fun with the multi-rolling. Simon Brandon in particular takes to his dual roles as Alexander von Zemlinsky and Gustav Klimt. Orsolya Nagy was always fun to watch as the gossipy socialite Bertha Zuckerkandl.

The Dedication by Clarie Novello / White Bear Theatre / 1 – 12 October

https://www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk/whatson/the-dedication

Reviewer Katie Walker-Cook is an actor and writer.