The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz

Hello my wonderful followers. I am doing this blog for a class assignment. It still may interest you though because it is about the arts rather than job searching!

Today, I went to see the Moonlight Sonate of Beethovan Blatz by Armin Wiebe who is an accomplished novelist and well known figure in our literary community. Other work by Wiebe includes three novels all based in a fictional town in Manitoba. These books are: The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, Murder in Gutenthal and The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst. Tatsea is also writen by Wiebe and is award winning.

I must confess, I had not heard of Wiebe before this class assignment,so I am happy that I learned about a Manitoba artist! What is unique about Wiebe that I am finding from my research is how he uses dialect and dialogue togehter that really shapes his characters' unique disposition.

First year Creative Communication student's were fortunate because Wiebe came to speak live on Thursday, April 14, 2011 in our seminar spot. What was interesting I found was what Wiebe said about the Monnlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz. I remember him saying that "Unlike my previous stories that have wanted to grow into novels, this story wants to be a play." After watching it today, I can see why. The characters are so vivid and lifelike. The humour is real and funny and the music needs to be heard.

I went to the 2:00pm showing presented by the Manitoba Theatre Projects. I went to the wrong place at first because I went to the actual Manitoba Theatre Project's building. There were many stairs I had to climb to find out I was in the wrong facility. The actual show was in the Rachel Browne Theatre at 211 Bannatyne. So, I finally got there even though I was huffing and puffing.

I am actually glad I didn't go with the rest of the CreCommers because there are so many of us when we go places, we would have taken up the entire theatre. I made sure I was able to survey the crowd to see what the audience was like and it was varried but, there were several seniors. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the humour of the play and many laughs were heard throught the two hour production.

The setting of the paly is in the 1930's on a farm in rural Manitoba.What I liked most about Armin's writing style is that he really digs deep to build his characters unique personalities expressed by their desires and disappointments. The cast consists of two women and two men. Each of them seem to have thier own agenda but somehow come together in the end by the birth of a new baby.


The main character is Such Kehler who is a housewife full of life. Susch really longs to have a child but hasn't been able to with her husband Obrum Kehler for the past two years because he had a bad case of the mumps. There is one scene when Obrum gets Poison Ivey and cannot wear pants because of the rubbing and resorts to wearing his wife's long black wool skirt. This was a real audience pleaser that generated many laughs.

Susch is hard working and tries to adhere to the pressur society would have place on a woman during the 1930's. It is hard for her though because her husband Obrum is always away working and leaves her alone. To combat this issue, Obrum buys a out of tune piano for Susch so she can learn to play. Obrum calls on Beethoven Blatz to fix up the antique piano and teach his wife. The student and the teacher find themselves alone together on many stormy prairie nights.

Teen is Susch's best friend who may be in love with Susch but I was a bit confused with that story line because of what is not said between the two.
Then there is Beethoven Blatz, the eccentric musician from Russia that is in love with his beloved Sonia who died. Susch longs for a child and Beethoven Blatz longs for Sonia and lives for his music. Eventually, Blatz starts to develop feelings for Susch as she inspires his creativity. One night when Obrum is away, Blatz and Susch have sex and Susch becomes pregnant. Throughout this journey, Blatz continues to stay in the house when Obrum is away that causes great friction between Teen, Obrum and Blatz. We all can relate at one point of having the houseguest that never leaves.However when the baby is born, everyone calms down and eventually gets along.

What I did find interesting is how similar the sounds of Low German were to Yiddish. As I Jewish person, I don't think I would have chosen to go see this play on my own accord but I am glad I did. I enjoyed myself today.
THe Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz is playing until April 17, 2011.