About the work
MANTRA MIA is a musical by Philipp Gras and Claudio Gottschalk-Schmitt. Gras is credited with the music and Gottschalk-Schmitt with the text. The work received its world premiere in 2025 at Brandenburger Theater in cooperation with the Musical/Show programme of Berlin University of the Arts; the university lists 30 October 2025 as the premiere date. Carola Söllner directed and Melissa King choreographed.
Plot
Eight women arrive on a remote island for a ten-day yoga and meditation retreat. The programme promises to overcome personal problems through a journey towards the participants' true selves. Yoga sessions, rituals and gradually exposed secrets begin to destabilise their carefully constructed identities. When a storm arrives, the situation intensifies and the group is forced to reconsider relationships, fears and expectations surrounding self-optimisation and personal transformation.
Cultural significance
MANTRA MIA was created through cooperation between a professional theatre and the graduating Musical/Show class of Berlin University of the Arts. Thematically, it addresses a distinctly contemporary environment of wellness, retreats, self-discovery and the commercialised search for personal improvement, translating this material into a newly created German-language musical.