The anachronistic gathering of three historical figures – Clara and Robert Schumann meet the Italian poet laureate and national hero, Gabriele d’Annunzio in his villa in the year 1929. The dominating theme is the tense relationship between art and money, which most of all applies to Clara. Up until her marriage, she was a famous pianist and composer. Since then, she took on the role of a self-sacrificing artist’s wife – entirely to serve Robert’s career. Jelinek confronts and comments on the man’s “deluded search” for “or-ig-in-al-i-ty” through her own writing style. Figures appear as “representatives of speech” rather than characters and move within a mesh of strange voices. “Clara S.” dismantles the cult of the genius and illustrates how impossible it is for women to realize their creative potential within the arts.
