Final Analysis

Above: Ezra Barnes (Gustav Mahler) and Elizabeth Jasicki (Alma Mahler)
Photo credit:John Quilty

Final Analysis, was part of the 2012 Midtown International Theatre Festival and was honored with seven MITF Awards, receiving an unprecedented 13 nominations. The play, directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser, is set in turn-of-the-century Vienna - the crossroads of civilization ? a major confluence of art, music, science and politics.

But, festering beneath the facade of frivolity and joy, the city is rotting at its core, sickened by moral corruption, obsessed with death, and ravaged by a growing hatred of the Jews. Against this background ? Gustav Mahler, the great composer and conductor, falls in love with the talented, tempestuous Alma Schindler; Joseph Stalin meets a dangerous young man over a game of chess; Ludwig Wittgenstein, destined to become a dominant force in world philosophy, runs into an old schoolmate with unpleasant consequences, and in the midst of this, Sigmund Freud faces what he has always denied ? the essential ? evil nature of man.