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Showing posts with label Richard Hilliar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Hilliar. Show all posts

Friday 10 January 2014

Wittenberg by David Davalos - Review


What a brilliant start to the year. This production by the Brevity Theatre Company in association with the Sydney Independent Theatre Company could well be one of the highlights in theatre for 2014. It is written by David Davalos who has won several awards for this work. I am not surprised as the dialogue, which is the most important part of this play, is technical, clever and realistic, plus Hamlets role is written in the style of Shakespearean verse.

The play is set in Wittenberg University, Germany in 1517.  Prince Hamlet (Alexander Butt) has got to the point in his education where he has to choose his major. Two lecturers do battle to try to influence Hamlet to make a decision and major in their subject.  Enter, Dr John Faustus (David Woodward) who has four doctorates. One of them is in Philosophy and another in Medicine. These two feature heavily in the play, as he spends his time either arguing and discussing the meaning of life, the universe and the Bible or fixing peoples minor ailments. He has a small medicine cabinet full of interesting herbs and pills from exotic places. Then there Martin Luther (Nick Curnow) who won't have a bad word said about God or the Bible. His whole world is in the Bible and spars constantly with Faustus.

This sounds like it would be a very dry play but it is not at all. It is is full of quotes from Shakespeare, the modern day an probably more.  It is a play where you will find yourself hanging off every word because you don't want to miss something.  It is a play where you will either want to go back and see it again or read the script yourself. Finally, it will also make you think about the Bible and what it says, you may even want to pick up a copy and start reading it, if you don't already.