Thomas Mann

The present dramatization was created for the Festspiele Reichenau and was first performed there on 6 July 2001. "Hermann Beil and director Vera Sturm have succeeded in compiling a densely compressed version of the 1000-page novel, one which follows Thomas Mann and his text closely ... ... a giant success!" (Crown)

"Vera Sturm and Hermann Beil gave the festival Reichenau on the Semmering a gripping, theater-friendly dramatization. We have named the lady first, and not out of politeness. Vera Sturm's powers of association, while at the same time accurately detailed, are the trump card behind this dramatization of Thomas Mann's monumental romance The Magic Mountain (1924) at the Südbahnhotel am Semmering. But Hermann Beil has also played a part in this remarkable performance. The book may be full of dialogues, but an expert eye is needed to turn this text into a theatrical reality without letting the complicated subject matter put the audience to sleep in their confusion….The performance is tight. They must have worked hard on the text; the resulting creation has nothing to do with a scenic reading. It has a refreshing vitality, sensual, not nervous or pedantic. The models, ideologies, fantasies, and resentments that shaped (and shape) Europe are transparent and not tendentiously flawed, in a way that follows Thomas Mann's style. "(Die Presse)