When actor Ivo Müller discovered writer Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) it changed his life. So moved by his poems and letters, Müller embarked on creating a one-man show celebrating the author. The result is his one-man show One Million Words – Rilke, opening Friday, April 24 for a six-performance run at the Sierra Madre Playhouse (for details see below).
In his concept, Müller portrays both an actor in the present and a poet from the past who connect, exploring themes of love, the creative process, and the sense of not belonging. The show tells the story of a writer who, for nearly a year, struggles to create poetry and can only express himself through letters. The actor uses these letters to navigate his own challenges in a place where even his name feels foreign.
“My goal is to illuminate the human experience, reminding us of our shared vulnerabilities, even as we navigate a landscape that feels increasingly divided,” says Müller.
A chance encounter
So how did a Brazilian actor wind up touring a show about an Austrian poet? While teaching acting to kids “in vulnerable situations” in São Paulo, Brazil, Müller discovered several untouched copies of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet in the school library and started reading. And he realized he and the writer shared a number of connections. “This was in 2003 and the first letter was written in 1903. We’re both Sagittarius born in the same week in December. I thought this is magical and special, and I need to share this material with my students.”
“Rilke was always a foreigner, he felt like he didn’t belong. Born In Prague, he grew up speaking German. A biographer wrote that by 14 he regretted never learning Czech,” says Müller. “My parents spoke German but had to learn Brazilian Portuguese when we moved to Brazil.
“I came to the US in the ‘90s as an exchange student to learn English. So, I started to relate to Rilke more as being a foreigner, an outsider.”
Timeless advice
While many Americans aren’t familiar with Rilke, “in the ‘50s some great Brazilian poets translated him and he became popular,” says Müller. Rilke’s Letters, published posthumously in 1929, consists of 10 letters written to a young, aspiring poet offering advice on writing, solitude, love and the creative life.
The letters to Franz Xaver Kappus are a collection of reflections encouraging the recipient to look inward, embrace solitude, and find the necessity of writing within themselves.
Some examples are: “A work of art is good when it comes out of necessity” and “Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms of spring without the fear that after them may come no summer.”
Rilke’s influence
Rilke’s writings have influenced authors ranging from W.H. Auden to Thomas Pynchon. He continues to impact artists like pianist Vicki Ray who in The Rilke Project recites his poetry. She will present a pre-show performance this Friday.
Lady Gaga has a tattoo on her left arm, also from the letters. It reads: “In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?”
Another fan is Matt Cook, the playhouse’s artistic and executive director, who was eager to bring the show to Sierra Madre.
Following are excerpts from my interview with Müller about the show’s journey to the stage.
Can you explain the genesis of the piece?
I was young and had just moved from the small town of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina to São Paulo to join to a theatre troupe and pursue acting. As I read the letters, I realized I had a lot in common with the young poet and decided to get some material together and do a solo show in Brazil.
When I first did the show in 2010-13 it was just Letters to a Young Poet that I adapted. The show involved puppets, it was expensive to travel with, and not a good solo show.
In 2018, a library with a theater in Brazil commissioned me to do the show again. I was reluctant, but they insisted and offered me the dates of Rilke’s birthday week. I took it as a sign to continue. I got rid of the old set and revised my second version with poems, letters and other works.
Which of Rilke’s works are you using in the show?
Besides the letters, I also include pieces from The Duino Elegies, a cycle of 10 lyrical poems, considered his masterpiece, exploring themes of existence, beauty, suffering and the human condition through a dialogue with angels and the natural world. Plus, there are selections from The Book of Hours, another collection of poetry,
I also draw on two novels he wrote as a young man, Ewald Tragy, when he was 22, and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, when Rilke was roughly 26 to 34 years old.
How are you using the advice in the show?
Working with an audience I’m a lot more open to it. I like the idea that Rilke is telling this person, ‘I can tell you what I think, but you have to do what you think is right.”
The character I’m playing sounds wise, yet he himself is uncertain. I try to stay inside that uncertainty, because, as Rilke says, “Live the question.” He was in his 20s when he wrote most of the letters I use. And in the first letter to the young poet he writes, “I cannot give you advice…but since you have asked for my advice.” I love this contradiction. It reveals vulnerability.
Putting it together
During the pandemic I was going back and forth between Brazil and the US and doing the show online. I realized the show addressed mental health issues and isolation, like Rilke had felt. I was doing the show in Portuguese and thought the show had international appeal.
At the end of the pandemic, I started trying to produce an English version of the show. In 2024, Tony Torn, son of actors Geraldine Page and Rip Torn, and Lee Ann Brown offered me a chance to do a workshop run of the show in New York City at “Torn Page.” (The “lab for theatre work” is in the Chelsea townhouse where Page and Torn lived.)
I saw it as a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop the show and to change the name. Before it was Letters to a Young Poet. If someone Googled that, they’d just get the book and not the show. One Million Words – Rilke is much more reflective of the show.
How did English change the show?
Arieta Corrêa directed the original production and Darrell Larson joined as co-director of the English version.
English changes the show. It’s my second language. Things got deeper when I started doing show the show in English. Moving between languages is not just translation; it changes what the body does with text. The stakes are higher in English, and it takes me out of my comfort zone.
What about the design, look of the show?
Arieta and I developed the concept. It’s a plain desk and chairs and me in a sea of letters. It’s a lot of fun, but work to move around in.
There are also an apple and rose suspended behind me. Rilke wrote at least five poems about roses and there’s a legend that Rilke died in 1926 after pricking his finger on a rose thorn. It became infected and, along with his leukemia, led to his death at age 51. He reportedly wrote in his own epitaph: “Rose, oh pure contradiction, desire, / to be no one’s sleep beneath / so many lids.”
Rilke related to objects, animals and plants more than to human beings and they held great value for him. Apples symbolized many things, like resilience, as in his poem The Apple Orchard.
What kind of research did you do and what did you learn?
I’ve read a lot of biographies. I was impressed with Leslie Chamberlain’s Rilke: The Last Inward Man, published in 2022. “It’s well researched and compelling from a female point of view. I enjoyed it.
I particularly like the passage: “American readers seemed to have loved Rilke uninterruptedly, because he gifted them a moving critique of the pace and style of industrial life, which otherwise they could often not bear. Rilke gave, and still gives, a function for poetry to help any and all of us withstand the materialist–technological onslaught. He is a secular bulwark, spiritual but not religious, something these days increasingly rare.”
Rilke led a fascinating life. He met famed sculptor Auguste Rodin in 1902 and in 1905 became his assistant and secretary. They lived on Rodin’s country estate for nine months and the two artists obviously influenced each other. Rodin fired Rilke in 1906, but they later reconciled.
Rilke fell in love with author/essayist Lou Andreas-Salomé who urged him to change his name “René” to “Rainer” because she thought it was more masculine. One of the first women to study with Sigmund Freud, she shared her knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke.
You’ve been living with the show for more than a decade. Do you keep returning to him?
I went back to reading Rilke in February 2022, out of anxiety after Russia invaded Ukraine, and now a few days after we started this LA tour, the US and Israel started another war in the Middle East. I think going back to Rilke is my refuge.
As we grapple with wars, violence, and the devastating impact of human suffering, Rilke’s words serve as an antidote to the chaos. His ability to articulate the depths of human emotion provides a much-needed refuge amid the challenges of modern life.
What’s the future of the show?
First, I’m really happy to be in Sierra Madre. I like the idea of playing in a theater that was showing silent movies in 1929 when Rilke was writing poetry.
Next up is the UK premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It’s going to be special because 2016 is Rilke’s centennial year.
The Sierra Madre Playhouse is at 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. Performances are Friday-Sunday, April 24-26 and May 1-3 at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range from $12-$35 and are available by calling 626-355-4318 or visiting www.sierramadreplayhouse.org
Steve Simmons is an accomplished writer and editor who writes about a wide array of topics including entertainment. His successful experience at The Beverly Hills Courier and other publications set the stage for his blog. Contact Steve at steve.simmons0211@gmail.com or 626-788-6734.
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