Krystian Lupa and the premiere in Salzburg

The Polish director will stage ‘The Magic Mountain’, based on Thomas Mann, at Salzburg's Landestheater. It is a co-production of the Salzburg Festival and the Jaunimo Teatras in Vilnius. The premiere will take place on 20 August, with further shows on 22, 24, 26 and 28 August 2024.

Krystian Lupa is the director, set designer, lighting director and author of the adaptation of the play's text. The costumes were designed by Piotr Skiba. Natan Berkowicz (direction), Stanisław Zieliński (design) and Nikodem Marek (cinematographer) are responsible for the video. Oskar Jacek Sadowski is the assistant director.

Tomasz Mann has done an extraordinary job in ‘The Magic Mountain’. The strategy of easy condemnation, without understanding the essence of the matter, is actually a strategy of constant renewal of the demon that lies within us,’ says Krystian Lupa, theatre director.

I've approached ‘The Magic Mountain’ a couple of times, we did some fragments during classes at the theatre school in Krakow. When a new project in Vilnius confronted me, joined by Marina Davydova, the current director of the drama section of the Salzburg Festival, we first talked about the possibility of me doing Musil's ‘Man Without Qualities’ again.

Thomas Mann has done an extraordinary job in The Magic Mountain. The strategy of easy condemnation, without understanding the essence of the matter, is actually a strategy of constant renewal of the demon that lies within us,’ says Krystian Lupa, theatre director.

I've approached ‘The Magic Mountain’ a couple of times, we did some fragments during classes at the theatre school in Krakow. When a new project in Vilnius confronted me, joined by Marina Davydova, the current director of the drama section of the Salzburg Festival, we first talked about the possibility of me doing Musil's ‘Man Without Qualities’ again. Later, the conversation descended on Thomas Mann and ‘The Magic Mountain’ and the premonition of the impending war that ends the book, which might challenge a new reading. Or rather, a new embodiment - not necessarily by 100 per cent of Mann's text, but the design of a space where man and community meet - a micro-world where human reality experiences an experiment.

I was very passionate about such an idea, for three-quarters of the last year I entered Mann - and it is something extremely fascinating, with his life and his relationship to politics, to the reality of Germany. The whole transformation of consciousness, ideological and worldview, of Thomas Mann after the First World War, because before that he was extremely committed to the national aspirations of Germany. Yet they suffered a defeat in him and he had to transform himself. For our times, these are incredibly revealing tropes.