Malkovich in Vienna

There's something slightly surreal about this artistic endevour. Perhaps if you find yourself in Vienna in July you might like to report back on it?

Being Jack Unterweger

American actor John Malkovich stars as serial killer Jack Unterweger at the Ronacher.
From July 1-5, 2009, Vienna’s Ronacher Theater will host a very special musical theater project. “John Malkovich is Jack Unterweger: The Infernal Comedy” is the title of this work for two sopranos, a baroque orchestra, and one actor. The latter role will be filled by Hollywood star John Malkovich, who will read (in English) the fictional autobiography of a murderer. The play comes to Vienna as an adaptation of a Los Angeles production.

Malkovich, as Jack Unterweger, will read a posthumous – and therefore fictional – autobiography that, for the first time, reveals the supposed whole truth behind the life and death of this Austrian serial killer. The two sopranos will fill the roles of the women in Unterweger’s life and perform arias by Vivaldi, Mozart, Haydn and Weber, all of which deal with the themes of love and violence.

The case of Jack Unterweger was once a hot topic of discussion in Austrian society. After receiving a life sentence for a murder he committed under the influence of drugs, Unterweger began to write while in prison. He was released after 16 years and held up as a shining example of successful re-socialization. In the years that followed he murdered several prostitutes in Austria, the Czech Republic and the US. After being found guilty of nine murders in 1994, Unterweger hung himself in his jail cell.

John Malkovich is Jack Unterweger: The Infernal Comedy, snappy title isn't it!  If you can't resist it, it is on between 1-5 July at the Ronacher Theater, Seilerstätte 9, 1st district, Vienna