The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven ... Blatz?

Okay, I don't really have any intro planed out for this one, so I'm just going to get into it. The other night, Tuesday night, I attended a play put on by Theatre Projects Manitoba, and written by a former CreComm instructor, Armin Wiebe. The play was called was called The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz. So you're probably thinking what I was thinking when I first heard the title. "What's that about?" Well, it's about Mennonites, but it's not what you might think. The play breaks away from traditional Mennonite stereotypes, while still using some. I can't really come up with a better way to explain what I mean by that, and I don't want to go into too much detail, simply because I don't want to ruin the surprise of the play. So, if you don't understand what I mean, then you have to go see the play. And it's good, so don't worry.

Because I don't want to leave any of you completely empty handed I'll throw in a few main themes of the play. Poison Ivy: it's a bummer, especially if you get it between your legs. There's a piano, and you better believe it's broken. There's a Russian, and he sure speaks German. And, there's a bit of conflict, like any good play should have. Now I don't really want to give too much more than I had going into the play, but I will, add just one more thing that I didn't know going into it. There's a love square. That's like a love triangle, but it's got an extra corner.

After my class watched the play, we were fortunate enough to have the playwright, Armin, speak to us afterward, and then again, this morning. Having him answer our questions about the play really helped give a clearer understanding of the characters and some of the more subtle parts of the play. One of these parts involves an instrument called the brum tup. I'm not sure if that is the correct spelling, when I looked it up, that's the only way I could find it. There is a scene in the play, where the brum tup is being played at new years, by a woman dressed as a man. It seemingly had very little to do with the play, and I was greatly confused during that part of the play. Armin explained during our seminar that the brum tup had for quite sometime been an ingrained part of Mennonite New Years tradition. Young men would go door to door with the brum tup and sing Ode to Joy. I think that's right. I'm pretty sure it was Ode to Joy.

Anyway, the play was great. There was even mention of the story behind Ludwig Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Go see it, and stop complaining about how there's nothing to do in Winnipeg.