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Home > Blogs > Things to do in Butler County > Archives > 2009 > September > 16 > Entry
REVIEW: “33 Variations,” Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, through Sept. 20
“33 Variations” by Moises Kaufman, through Sept. 20, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 1127 Vine St., Cincinnati. $16-40. (513) 421-3555; www.cincyetc.com.
I’ve often wondered if Ludwig von Beethoven was really the cranky old curmudgeon he’s often presented to be.
If so, Dennis Parlato and the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati have nailed the personality of the maestro in “33 Variations,” which wraps up this weekend.
The title and the story are about a set of variations on a waltz that Beethoven apparently took his time in creating during the later years of his life. He and other top composers of his day were approached by a music publisher, Anton Diabelli, to create variations on a waltz that Diabelli wrote to be published in one magnificent and presumably profitable volume.
But rather than present one variation, Beethoven created 33, taking his time with it and apparently delaying the publication of Diabelli’s volume.
This story is woven into the story of Beethoven scholar Dr. Katherine Brandt (Amy Warner), who travels to Bonn, Germany, to explore a massive collection of Beethoven’s notes and diaries — and “conversation books” that contain notes that his visitors would write to converse with the increasingly deaf composer. She is desperately trying to ascertain exactly why Beethoven created 33 variations on the theme and what took him so long to do it.
Their stories — Brandt’s and Beethoven’s — are remarkably parallel as both are in a race against time. Beethoven’s health was failing during the years he worked on the variations and he would not work at all for years at a stretch. Brandt’s health is also failing as she embarks on her quest as ALS — Lou Gehrig’s Disease — diminishes her capabilities.
A third story line, the love story between Brandt’s daughter Clara and the male nurse who gets personally involved in his patient’s case.
“33 Variations” is reminiscent of “Opus,” an ETC production from a couple of seasons back, concerning a quartet struggling through its issues while rehearsing Beethoven’s string quartet opus 131, although the maestro did not make a personal appearance in that show.
But rather, both plays use a musical style of storytelling where voices and story lines take the place of instruments and themes. There are moments in “33 Variations” where all the characters on stage speak at once, using the same or similar phrases in different contexts that turns the storytelling into a fugue of voices.
PHOTO by Sandy Underwood: Dennis Parlato as Beethoven and Drew Fracher as his unreliable biographer Anton Schindler.
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