By David Davalos

“…A hilarious mash-up of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and, yes, even the Protestant Reformation.”  

June 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25
7:30pm

Crawlspace Comedy Theatre
315 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI 49007

“…the pace is zippy, the themes beautifully articulated and the overall sensation exhilarating…’To be or not to be’ never sounded so entertaining.”
— Huffington Post.
“…a crackling good bit of entertainment…bursts with a Stoppardian eagerness to tickle as it tangles with weightier issues… Hilarity, thy name is WITTENBERG.”
— NY Times.
“A cocktail of brainy allusions, absurdist plot twists, sly wordplay and disarming anachronisms, fortified with serious ideas, WITTENBERG should delight Tom Stoppard fans, recovering English majors, [and] disillusioned academics…”
— Washington Post.

Production:

Directed by Kevin Dodd
Produced by Mitch Voss 

Cast (in order of appearance)

John Faustus - Mitch Voss
Hamlet - Ian Darling-Romain
Martin Luther - Robert Davidson
Eternal Feminine - Lisa Abbott

Crew

Ophelia Rose - Stage Manager
Dixie Edwards - Assistant Stage Manager 
Ron Dundon - Assistant Stage Manager 

Hamlet

“You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire;
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.”

– The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark  

Class of 1518

Dr Faustus

“Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I, that have with subtle syllogisms
Gravell’d the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems as th’infernal spirits
On sweet Musaeus when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
Whose shadows made all Europe honour him.”

– The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

professor, philosophy

Martin Luther

“Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light,
the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg,
under the presidency of Reverend Father Martin Luther,
Monk of the Order of Saint Augustine,
Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology,
and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place.”

– Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther
on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
(a.k.a. the 95 Theses)

professor, theology

Eternal Feminine

Everything transient
Is but a symbol;
The insufficient
Here finds fulfilment;
The indescribable
Here becomes deed;
The eternal-feminine
Draws us on high.

—Faust, Part Two

The Story:

It is October 1517 in northern Germany. The beginning of another fall semester at the University of Wittenberg finds certain members of the faculty and student body at personal and professional crossroads. Hamlet (senior, class of 1518) is returning from a summer in Poland spent studying astronomy, where he has come in contact with a revolutionary scientific theory that threatens the very order of the universe, resulting in psychic trauma and a crisis of faith for him. His teacher and mentor John Faustus (professor, philosophy) has decided at long last to make an honest woman of his paramour, Helen, a former nun who is now one of the Continent’s most sought-after courtesans. And Faustus’ colleague and Hamlet’s instructor and priest, Martin Luther (professor, theology), is dealing with the spiritual and medical consequences of his long-simmering outrage at certain abusive practices of the Church—the same Church to which he has sworn undying obedience. How these three men’s sagas overlap and intertwine and how they end up irrevocably affecting the course of each other’s lives is the substance of WITTENBERG, a comedy that reveals the story behind the stories of Hamlet, Doctor Faustus and the Protestant Reformation.

—Dramatists.com

Further Reading:
”Audience Guide” by The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey