Old Wicked Songs

by Jon Marans

Hoping to reconnect with his music and shatter the artistic block that's plagued his career, Stephen Hoffman, a young American piano prodigy, ventures to Vienna in the spring of 1986. He is assigned to an elderly vocal teacher, Professor Josef Mashkan, who gives Stephen the "Dichterliebe" song cycle by Robert Schumann. Although Stephen resents having to study simple vocal accompaniment, he slowly realizes that he is in the hands of a master-teacher. It's a grudging realization at best for Stephen, as he and Mashkan approach each other from such opposite ends of experience. It seems impossible at first that they will ever get along, much less work together. Their dichotomies abound: One is European, one American; one old-fashioned, the other modern; one passionate, the other technically precise; and finally, one a seeming anti-Semite, and the other a Jew-a theme partly expressed by the play's allusions to Kurt Waldheim's campaign for Austria's presidency. When Stephen visits Dachau, at the insistence of his Jewish parents, the whitewash of official German history fills him with rage, and he channels this anger into his art-and against Mashkan as well. Stephen soon discovers that Mashkan's anti-Semitic remarks mask a darker history; he is a Holocaust survivor who would rather die than confront his demons. Stephen urges Mashkan to tell his story-for his sake as well as for Stephen's-but eventually, only music-their one common bond-helps release the burning emotions of the teacher and helps melt the frigidity of the student.

Genres: Plays, Drama

71 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a phenomenal play lurking somewhere in Old Wicked Songs. If I saw it staged, I’d perhaps be utterly wowed by this tale of a piano prodigy and his curmudgeonly instructor. Music plays a big role in the play (not shocking given the title), and the atmosphere of a theatre would no doubt make it easier to get swept up into the plot.

On page, however, the play is too jumpy. While I didn’t love it, I am shocked no one’s adapted it for film. It feels like the sort of play that would transition beautifully onto the screen, especially if shot on location Vienna. Quasi-recommended.

[Jared]

Wow. Just wow. This play conveys so many emotions. Anyone can relate to it one some level--those who lack passion in life, who have been hurt, repressed, thought of suicide, or simply love music and history. I don't think there is anyone, that after seeing this performed, would say that they don't feel more connected to or understand better the classics. Highly recommended.