The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz

Recently all first-year CreComms shuffled over to the Rachel Browne Theatre to see former CreComm instructor Armin Wiebe's first venture into theatre.  Wiebe is the writer of the Mennonite-sex-romp that is The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, a play centred around four characters and one setting.

The story is based around a farmer, Obrum Kehler, and his wife, Susch, and their desire to have a baby.  In the beginning of the play, Obrum finds a broken old "piano-thing" that has fallen off a wagon.  He enlists the help of his old friend Beethoven Blatz, a pianist, to fix up the instrument, and help Susch learn to play.  Through a series of confusing altercations between the three, and Susch's best friend Teen, it is revealed that Obrum cannot get Susch pregnant due to a bout of mumps during his childhood (which I didn't know could affect a man's Gennys, but you learn something every day).  Through a series of even more confusing dialogue with double meanings (what does Obrum really mean when he says he wants Blatz to "tune his instrument"?) a love triangle is formed, with Blatz longing for Susch.  Then it turns out Teen has a thing for Susch, too.  This is followed by a few awkwardly staged sex scenes (done for artistic purposes, I guess), some out of place singing, a few angry altercations, then Susch has a baby.

If my description above sounds a little confusing, that's because it is.  The play itself followed a basic story line, but has a few scenes which make the viewer think twice about what is happening, which begin to make it quite confusing.  Add to that the actor's use of accents, and half the dialogue being in low German, and what do you get?  A confused looking group of first-year CreComm students.  Although the accents were fairly well done (and as an actor, I know how difficult accents can be), the fact that there was a lot of German thrown into the dialogue, it just made the story that much harder to follow.  I know some German, so I was able to understand basic things, but even still, I feel as though I missed out on a lot of the jokes and plot twists.

Wiebe makes no apologies for the way the play was written.  In a talk-back with the audience after the show, he stated that was the way he wrote, and it always has been.  Growing up in a Mennonite family, he was always around the Germglish (I just made that up, it means German/English) that he features so prominently in his writing.

Wiebe later came to RRC to talk with my classmates and I once again.  When I asked about the potential to alienate the audience by using the dialogue he does, Wiebe answered curtly.  "That's the way I write, and I make no apologies for it."

So, if you want my honest opinion (which I know you do), I feel like the actors all did a great job with what they were given, though the accents got confusing.  The dialogue made the play tough to follow, and unless you speak low German, you probably won't get about half of the jokes in the play.  As someone who enjoys theatre, I was mildly entertained.