{"id":51446,"date":"2015-06-13T11:18:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T17:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/13\/stage-review-wittenberg.html"},"modified":"2015-06-13T11:18:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T17:18:23","slug":"stage-review-wittenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/13\/stage-review-wittenberg.html","title":{"rendered":"Stage review: "Wittenberg""},"content":{"rendered":"

We went last night to see the Colorado premiere of David Davalos' Wittenberg<\/i> up at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival at CU Boulder.
It's 1517 at Wittenberg University, where a dithering senior — a Danish prince named Hamlet — is being torn in two directions by his Philosophy prof., one Dr. John Faustus, and his Theology prof., one Dr. Martin Luther. Faustus is trying to expand his understanding of the world and his role in it — philosophically, scientifically, experientially, and pharmacologically. Luther is trying to preach the will of God, even though he's growing more and more disenchanted with the pecuniary practices of the Church ("Tetzel!"). The two professors' internal and external conflicts focus on Hamlet, who's trying to decide what to do with his life — and who's about to receive some sad news from home …<\/p>\n

It's an odd but entertaining show, alternately full of foreshadowing lines (esp. from Hamlet)<\/i> and humor, and some fairly heavy philosophical \/ theological debating. For all it's about making choices, all three men are (as is hammered home at the end of the show) heading toward their own inexorable dates with destiny, fictional or otherwise.<\/p>\n

I'm not sure that the scenes aren't better taken individually than as a whole, as the show veers between near-camp and deep thought, taking its subjects and players with deadly seriousness one moment and for ridicule the next. Hamlet's is the weakest role, next really coming into his own as a character (both intentionally but also inadvertently), more of a focal point between Faustus and Luther. There's an imbalance, as well, between the two frenemy professors, the Faustus getting a good chunk more of the limelight (stage-wise and story-wise) than Luther, which led to things feeling a bit askew.<\/p>\n

But the individual routines were good, the overarching tale both amusing and intriguing, the use of mixed modern and Elizabethan English interesting, and, best of all, it was all well acted: Benjamin Bonenfant as Hamlet, Lawrence Hecht as Faustus, and Howard Swain as Martin Luther, with Mare Trevathan in all the women's roles, from the Virgin Mary to Helen to Gretchen.<\/p>\n

Overall quite an enjoyable way to kick off the CSF season.<\/p>\n

More on the show here: http:\/\/www.coloradoshakes.org\/csf-features-colorado-and-regional-premieres-%E2%80%9Cwittenberg%E2%80%9D<\/a><\/p>\n

Next week: Much Ado About Nothing.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We went last night to see the Colorado premiere of David Davalos' Wittenberg up at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival at CU Boulder. It's 1517 at Wittenberg University, where a dithering senior — a Danish prince named Hamlet — is being torn in two directions by his Philosophy prof., one Dr. John Faustus, and his Theology … Continue reading “Stage review: "Wittenberg"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/CSF-WITTENBURG-Koskinen-8272.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51470,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/12\/time-for-a-new-colorado-shakespeare-festival-season-tonight-the-shakespeare-inspired-wittenberg.html","url_meta":{"origin":51446,"position":0},"title":"Time for a new Colorado Shakespeare Festival season! Tonight, the Shakespeare-inspired “Wittenberg”","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Jun-15 7:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Time for a new Colorado Shakespeare Festival season! Tonight, the Shakespeare-inspired \"Wittenberg\" #csf View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26001,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/03\/lovely-suessbatman-mashups.html","url_meta":{"origin":51446,"position":1},"title":"Lovely Seuss\/Batman mashups","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Feb-12 10:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"These are very fun. #ddtb Embedded Link Picture This: Batman, By Dr. Seuss Dr. Faustus continues the Seuss\/geek combo. Google+: Reshared 1 times","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133998,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/31\/the-sound-of-hamlet.html","url_meta":{"origin":51446,"position":2},"title":"The Sound of Hamlet","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 31-Jul-17 9:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"After we saw Hamlet last night at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, +Kay Hill dug this up on the Intertubes -- a series of cartoons with Hamlet set to tunes from The Sound of Music (including, for the stage pedants among you, the songs that were cut from the stage show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133996,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/30\/the-plays-the-thing.html","url_meta":{"origin":51446,"position":3},"title":"The play's the thing","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Jul-17 2:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"At the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of \"Hamlet\". Great show, excellent actress in the title role. Enjoying even better having watched \"Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead\" last weekend. \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170730_143721.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170730_143721.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170730_143721.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134001,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/31\/hamlet-as-pie-chart.html","url_meta":{"origin":51446,"position":4},"title":""Hamlet" as Pie Chart","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 31-Jul-17 10:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"Another fun item +Kay Hill dug up last night during intermission at Hamlet. (UST is \"Unresolved Sexual Tension,\" which plays quite differently when Hamlet is cast with a female actor.) \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Hamlet%2Bpie%2Bgraph.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":128192,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/30\/is-hamlet-fat.html","url_meta":{"origin":51446,"position":5},"title":"Is Hamlet Fat?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Sep-15 1:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No, not any particular actor, but the character himself. There are hints at it, but they are just as hotly disputed by some Shakespearean scholars as they are hotly supported by yet others (this about a character by an author that people still hotly dispute whether he was, in fact,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}