In Bed with Schoenberg.
Eccentric Austrian composer meets live string quartet.
With music by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Mahler, Lehar, Schoenberg and more.
Written by Dave Armstrong.
Directed by Conrad Newport.
Musical Director Donald Armstrong.
Produced by Caroline Armstrong.
Starring Gavin Rutherford.
Watch a short trailer for In Bed with Schoenberg. Cinematography and editing by Stephen Press.
This play premiered at Wellington’s Circa Theatre in February 2023. It is a one-man show accompanied by a live string quartet.
The story: Self-confessed genius Arnold Schoenberg has taken to his bed. It is 1951 in Los Angeles and he believes this will be his last day alive. The clock is ticking towards midnight. His numerology is never wrong.
Struggling in an unappreciative Hollywood, Arnold reflects on an earlier life of fame filled with glorious Viennese music, where his modern compositions caused riots, and where a failed artist became Fuhrer and forced his unwanted exile.
Starring Gavin Rutherford as Schoenberg, he shares the stage with a phenomenal string quartet led by Donald Armstrong – associate concertmaster of the NZSO and the older brother of the playwright Dave Armstrong.
Directed by Conrad Newport and with set and lighting design by William Smith, In Bed with Schoenberg is a delicious Viennese pastry filled with comedy, drama and exquisite live classical music.
"Gavin Rutherford is never less than wonderful and amazing"
Off the tracks.
"a brilliant sketch of the story of a tormented artist"
Five Lines
"a beautifully scripted, played, and rendered production that hits every note."
Regional News
“Marketed as “a delicious Viennese pastry filled with comedy, drama and exquisite live classical music”, In Bed with Schoenberg, delivers on its promise.” Theatreview
‘"The combination of string quartet and performer works beautifully, elevating the play into something more akin to a music-drama, to use the Wagnerian term."
This play is available both as a full production or as a script for an actor (or narrator reading the script) with a string quartet. Full set of string quartet parts available.
Listen to Dave Armstrong talk to Radio NZ’s Brian Crump about In Bed with Schoenberg here.
Listen to Hopeless Romantic, a podcast on Spotify that Dave wrote about Schoenberg and his music here.