BWW Preview: 33 VARIATIONS at Theatre Baton Rouge

The powers of passion and parenthood combine into a touching, complex story as Theatre Baton Rouge takes on Moises Kaufman's 33 VARIATIONS, directed by Shannon Walsh. The play focuses on an ailing musicologist who's struggling against time to unlock the mystery behind one of Beethoven's last projects.
The play-which in 2010 brought Jane Fonda back to the Broadway stage for the first time in 46 years-takes its name from Ludwig van Beethoven's "Diabelli" Variations, a set of variations for a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli.
Described as a "music-filled psychological drama," "33 Variations" follows the contemporary journey of Katherine Brandt, Ph.D., a musicologist obsessed with understanding Beethoven's fascination with this piece of music. The action shifts from Katherine in present-day Germany to Beethoven in 19th-century Austria. Katherine is battling ALS, and Beethoven is dealing with progressive hearing loss; both are in a race against time to complete their respective works.
"It's a really beautiful piece about aging, about coming to terms with those you love as you're struggling with your bodies and illness," Walsh said. "The core of this piece that we've been working through is overcoming obstacles in order to come together and let go."
In addition to coping with her illness, Katherine is struggling to heal her relationship with her estranged daughter.
"That is the ground on which the trajectory sits," Walsh said. "Their relationship is really cold. She's never quite satisfied with her daughter. She's disappointed in all the choices she makes so from the get-go we have the sense that the daughter has just been told her mom has been diagnosed with this disease and her mom waited a long time to tell her."
Those who come to see 33 VARIATIONS may also leave as Beethoven fans as the play works as an exercise in music appreciation with Beethoven's music scoring the play.
"Most folks know Beethoven for the 9th Symphony, but this piece is probably less famous than some of his other pieces, and it's strictly for piano," Walsh said. "If you didn't know a lot about Beethoven you will leave having a much deeper appreciation for the kind of the breadth of the type of music he wrote. What these variations he wrote demonstrate is the range of his compositional compacity and the fact that some of his music isn't serious. His music wasn't all meant to be played in concert halls. His music was also meant to be comic or to be danced to, and that's really what these 33 variations demonstrate, the full range of Beethoven's work across the spectrum of audiences."
Rather than just an aural background, Walsh explains that Beethoven's work is very integral to how the play was written with the music written into the script "like words on a page."
"Kaufman really stresses that the piano and the pianist need to be treated as a character in the play," Walsh said. "There's this one scene where we watch Beethoven composing one of the variations, and it operates like a conversation between the piano and Beethoven, which I think is a really unique device in terms of having music in a piece. This piece is wholly unlike any other I've had experience with."
33 VARIATIONS may be new to local theatergoers who primarily associate Kaufman with his previous acclaimed work THE LARAMIE PROJECT. According to Walsh, 33 VARIATIONS is more of a work of historical fiction with a narrative arc versus Kaufman's traditional docudrama work.
"The historical figures are real, but none of the contemporary figures are real people," Walsh said. "So, it is a much more fictionalized account I think than THE LARAMIE PROJECT."
TBR veterans fill up the production with Jennifer Johnson playing as Katherine Brandt with Mike Katchmer playing as Beethoven. Other TBR vets include Kaitlyn Stockwell as Clara Brandt with Bill Corcoran as Anton Diabelli and Clay Donaldson as Anton Schindler. New to TBR is Andréa Morales as Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger and Lee Terrebonne as Mike Clark.
"We watch all of these characters come to terms with their own relationships with people, with things like their music, like their work," Walsh said. "And watching that happen...just watching a really intense play about how these people are trying to make their relationships work and show care for one another I think is a beautiful love letter to the performing arts and what the performing arts can do."
For this production, TBR has partnered with the Mississippi chapter of ALS Association Louisiana. A joint post-show discussion will occur after Sunday, May 12th's matinee.
33 VARIATIONS runs through May 19th. Performances will be Thursday- Saturday nights (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday afternoons (2 p.m.) in TBR's Studio. This show is rated R. To purchase tickets or for more information, please visit theatrebr.org.