The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend." Ludwig van Beethoven

This man composed many great works, one being the Moonlight Sonata

It was this work that inspired this man....

....to write one of many of his own.

The CreComm sheep were herded to The Rachel Browne Theatre on Tueday April 12 to a sold out play where former CreComm instructor Armin Wiebe showed us the way.  This creative shepherd showed us that creativity never needs to be put out to pasture. Nearly in his mid thirties when he came out with his first novel in 1984. Now twenty-seven years later he is still hard at work on his craft as he delights audiences with his new stageplay that was based on his novel. The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz.

Wiebe went to great lengths to capture the essence of his story on stage from getting a dialect coach to make sure the accents came across the way he saw it. Wiebe also did research on how to properly make a Brommtopp which is a European friction drum or in classical circles also known as a lion's roar. In Russian Mennonite folk tradition it is traditionally played by men in costume on New Years Eve as they go door to door.

It was the cast who really brought this play to life, the carpenter, his farm wife, the mid wife and the German musician known as Blatz. Blatz is a perfect example of the above Beethoven quote. He couldn't comprehend anything  aside from the music that drew him in and his memories of Sonia. He was oblivious to his encounter with Sush and the consequences that may follow as he tickled the ivories of adultry. 

Wiebe said in his visit to RRC during our weekly seminar that he writes plays as a distraction from life, and The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz was a nice distraction from all the hustle and bustle of CreComm as Wiebe took us to a simpler time under some complicated construction.

It was more than just that Sush hoped for a nicer home that was under contstuction but moreso a family as Sush and Obrahm lived a life of biblical portions resembling that of Mary and Joseph.

Wiebe stayed true to his mennonite roots while tiptoeing through the risque garden of adultury and the love and lust of one woman for another. It was a pivotal point when Sush says to Teen I acknowledge your wanting.

None of us are strangers to wanting, and sometimes those wants are granted like in the case of Sush embarking on the path of motherhood by the end of the play Then there are wants in the ways of having love for another that is not or can't be returned.

Wiebe takes us on a roller coaster of emotion as he says it best: "Stage actors give you their whole being with intricate shifts of emotion and it was under the great direction of his words that this was done. Sush and Teen were characters that could be most identified with as we live in a world of wants.

Oscar Wilde once said: There are two tragedies in life one is getting what you want and the other is not getting it, and both women are victims of this same tragedy. As Sush is living a lie with Obrahm and Teen is living a lie with herself.

Armin Wiebe said" "I felt like my play was a trampoline and I wanted to get actors to jump on it to see if it would hold."

Not only did it hold, but the performances and words jump up to bask a little closer to the moonlight.

This is my review from Me to EWE

Blah Blah Blog Sheep. Out.