"Wittenberg" opened 09/13/14 at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (through 09/28/14)

Photo:Jerry Dalia Jordan Coughtry as Hamlet (Photo: Jerry Dalia)

Of course the title of David Davalos's play rings a bell. But if you are thinking of the University in Springfield, Ohio you are a little off the mark. Although it is the American cousin of Wittenberg University in Germany that is famous as Professor/Theologian Martin Luther's bully pulpit for his Ninety-Five Theses and principally the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. It is also famed in fiction as the University where Shakespeare's Hamlet and Horatio studied and is the setting for this audaciously funny and intellectually stimulating satire in which we see Luther and his fellow professor, the controversial philosopher Doctor Faustus at loggerheads as to which course of study the senior student Hamlet will choose as his major.

Buddies despite their on-going and stimulating disputations, Faustus and Luther will also be enjoying each other's company as well as the lager at the local pub where Faustus has a gig singing a little rock to his own guitar accompaniment. How could Hamlet not have had his head spinning with doubt and uncertainty when coming into contact with these men of intellect and consequence within such a confluence of new thought?

There are lots of dazzling and dizzying words dispensed in Davalos's enjoyable play. It's set in 1517 Germany and brings together fiction, fact and fable.

The splendid cast for this Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey production does Davalos's s text justice and creates characters who will keep you intoxicated by their blather and laughing with their bluster.

There are shades of Tom Stoppard by way of Monty Python lurking behind the characters, but they have a way of inviting us into their own and very iconic spheres of study. The plot seems primarily committed to the stimulating oral battles between Luther and Faustus. Whether or not they actually serve to influence or change the mind of the already and recognizably befuddled, but inquisitive and also naive student Hamlet is left for us to ponder. The play is brilliantly twisty and laced with brainy twaddle as it moves from one almost absurdist situation to the next. What fun when a little escapist sex in the form of The Eternal Feminine in invited to participate.To read the complete review originally posted on 09/14/14 please go to http://curtainup.com/wittenbergnj.html