Schubert - the Wanderer *
A dramatic play with music about the last days of Franz Schubert
Written and performed by Michael Lunts
Directed by Roger Leach
This one-man play with live music offers audiences a unique opportunity to hear and see Schubert, man and musician, in a dramatic context.
Set in Vienna in 1828, 'Schubert - the Wanderer' focuses on the last months of Schubert's tragically short life.
The young composer has just arrived at his brother Ferdinand's house, to rest and take the air on the advice of his doctors.
Faced with his own mortality, just as his artistic vision is rising to new heights, music pours forth in a last flowering of creativity before his 'unmentionable' illness takes its toll.
Using the metaphor of the wanderer, a figure that haunted Schubert's imagination, 'Schubert - the Wanderer' is an evocative, moving drama that sheds new light on a much-misunderstood musical genius.
"Michael Lunts' performance is a tour-de-force: drama, songs, piano music ... this is thought-provoking and evocative drama, prompted by Schubert's sublime music, by a master actor and writer who even manages to shave on stage with a sharp, cut-throat razor. Beat that!"
Salisbury Journal
"Michael Lunts's facility at the piano makes this portrait of Schubert pleasingly credible ... a most attractive evening's theatre."
The Stage
* Prior to 2013, this show was entitled 'A Wanderer Fantasy'