The Silent Woman
In 2019, my friend Martin told me the story of Oskar Kokoschka and his doll of Alma Mahler, and I was immediately captivated. Looking back, it was notable that this coincided with the 100th anniversary of the commissioning of the doll.
I was struck by the sheer audacity of Kokoschka, taking his doll out to the opera, to coffee houses, and dressing it up. I thought to myself, if Alma had been the one to commission a doll made in Oskar’s image, she probably would have been placed in an asylum for hysterical women. In contrast, Oskar went on to receive a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 1959. In defence of Oskar, he does seem somewhat bemused by this period in his life. At the end of the chapter in his autobiography discussing the doll, he reflects, “In Dresden in those days I really could get away with anything.”
Then COVID hit, and I found myself preoccupied with studying for a master’s in movement in a two-dimensional online setting. It was a challenging time. Nevertheless, Oskar and his doll lingered on the outskirts of my thoughts and imagination.
It wasn’t until 2023 that I decided to get serious about creating a show about Oskar. Having had little experience in professional theatre, I thought it might be wise to get a mentor to help me start the process. I found Monika Gravagno from Facciocose, and we have been working together for two years since. It has certainly been a learning experience, and I am grateful for all the help.
One of Monika’s first directives was for me to create a timeline for Oskar.
While I didn’t produce a full timeline, I learned much about the man within the timespan I did research. He was a devotee of the humanist Jan Ámos Komenský, this alone altered my initial impression of him. Humanists, or certainly the ones I know are thoughtful, compassionate and empathetic. This was not what I expected from a man who would commission a fetish, but what are people if not paradoxical?
In 1908, he wrote a series of poems as part of a larger work that included artwork titled The Dreaming Youths. This work is significant because Kokoschka breaks from the Viennese Secessionist style and creates Austrian Expressionism. The Dreaming Youths has been described as “…a juxtaposition of opposites, where notions of beauty and the grotesque, love and sexual violence, and reality and the subconscious are constantly blurred.” Roberto Rosenman, 2016. It is here that we begin to see the maverick and rebel within Kokoschka start to emerge. He began experimenting with a more expressionist style that drew heavily from emotion. The poem explores his struggle with his sexuality and his desire for a fellow classmate. In one poem, he writes, “…tugs on the iron chains and dances with her into the typhoon, where water columns glide like spectral snakes on the howling sea.” This may provide a preview of a theme that would later develop and culminate in his masterpiece, The Bride of the Wind.
In 1912, he met Alma, and their volatile love affair began. Many obstacles arose in their relationship, largely due to his status as a struggling artist with a reputation for causing trouble. Alma, known as Mahler’s widow, also faced societal pressure from friends who disapproved of their union. In an effort to elevate Oskar’s standing in the eyes of her friends, she asked him to paint her a masterpiece, promising to marry him afterward. He painted “Die Windsbraut,” or “The Bride of the Wind.” Today, it is considered one of the best expressionist paintings in the world and is housed in the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland. It is hung on a wall at the end of a very long corridor, so that as the viewer walks down the image gets larger and larger with each step. This concept really landed with me and I decided that the beginning of the play should offer this experience to the audience. I created a storyboard to reflect how the image would be shown.
This will not be in the Work in Progress show presented in the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival however due to a limited budget. But the image of a couple lying together is definitely how we begin our story.
Alma’s surviving daughter with Gustav Mahler, Anna (Guckie), was beloved by Kokoschka. He was ecstatic when Alma became pregnant with his child, but their affair was on shaky ground by this point. Her abortion in 1914 was a significant blow to Oskar, leading to the end of their relationship.
Being the impulsive and sensitive fellow that he is, Oskar decided to go to war and joined the cavalry, even though he was unable to ride a horse! In 1915, he was shot in the head and bayoneted in the lung during World War I. The creation of the doll came after the war in 1918. Closer inspection revealed that it was his prefrontal cortex that was injured, resulting in a loss of inhibitions. This perspective led me to consider that perhaps the doll was a consequence of a traumatic brain injury. However, after reading his autobiography and having already learned how he was obsessive, I believe it could have been a combination of the injury and the loneliness and grief resulting from his split with Alma.
By 1919, Oskar had been living with his doll for a year, gaining notoriety in Dresden and earning the moniker “MAD KOKOSCHKA!” He ended up painting 80 portraits of the doll and took it out to the opera and coffee houses. Eventually, he decapitated the doll with his sabre at a party he threw for friends and acquaintances.
Having explored Oskar’s autobiography and unravelled the layers of Alma’s history, my perspective on him began to shift. It’s clear that, emerging from the turmoil of war, he was desperately seeking love and connection with the woman he cherished above all else. While his approach to finding that love may not have been the most conventional—or even the most admirable—it’s precisely this complexity that adds depth to this story. It made me wonder: as humans in our quest for love, how far are we willing to go? As I reflected on Oskar’s journey, I was left with more questions than answers. I hoped that by creating this show, it will not only lead me toward some answers but also spark a broader discussion about the human condition. What dilemmas do we face in our pursuit of love, and how far are we willing to go to achieve the one thing that we humans cannot do without. Connection.
ACT ONE of The Silent Woman will be showing as a work in progress at the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival on 13; 15 & 21 June!
