"Wittenberg" at Seattle Shakes Really Packs a Pun

Michael Patten as Martin Luther, Connor Toms as Hamlet, and Chad Kelderman as Faustus in “Wittenberg” (Photo: John Ulman)

Playwright David Davalos may be responsible for the existence of the play Wittenberg (at Seattle Shakespeare Co. through December 5) but the set-up was just a matter of connecting the dots. As Davalos explains: “I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that Shakespeare identifies Hamlet as a student at Wittenberg, Marlowe cites Faustus as part of the faculty there, and history puts Luther there, teaching, preaching and launching the Protestant Reformation.”

Thus, Wittenberg‘s biblio-porn slash-fic in which genial philosophy professor John Faustus (Chad Kelderman) and volatile theology instructor Martin Luther (Michael Patten) spar about the merits of faith and reason while “guiding” their undeclared-major head-case, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Connor Toms)–before he is called home for a family emergency. Like most prequels, it struggles to get to its dramatic feet, and in fact it works best when Hamlet is a bit part. (Hamlet gets enough attention as it is–on a multipurpose note, Wittenberg’s set is Jennifer Zeyl’s Hamlet set, gussied up with collegiate warmth.)

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It’s the argument between colleagues Faustus and Luther that animates the play, but Davalos has also overstuffed the proceedings with historical and literary in-jokes. Imagine if Airplane! was written by a post-doc, or better yet, imagine The Simpsons Harvard writers taking a crack at “theatre.” From the opening scene of Dr. Faustus nailing papers to a bulletin board, to Hamlet’s strange dream of a black obelisk on the moon, the play is a cyclonic mingling of esoteric and happily random references. 

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Kelderman’s Faustus more or less steals the show–but if you’re a 16th-century Timothy-Leary-alike who dispenses the new discovery coffee and hash, plays open mics at the local tavern*, and is the standard-bearer for rationalism on campus, stealing the show is really the least you could do. Kelderman shades his likably damaged character, and persuades you of his inspirational capacity. Patten’s grumpy Luther may be his antagonist, but Michelle Chiachiere, as the Eternal Feminine (an adventuresome Helen, the barmaid Marguerite), is his nemesis. 

In all, it’s as if Davalos sat down to write a comedy specifically for the audiences of the Seattle Shakespeare Co. You get to see Connor Toms off-handedly blank-versifying for his Hamlet-yet-to-come, and topping off his performance with a heated tennis match with one Laertes. There’s the Fibber McGee’s closet of historical and literary references. And there’s faculty humor. Not for everyone, no. But director Rita Giomi mostly smooths over the play’s baggy pacing, and finds the quiet humanity in questions that tie together people centuries apart, in the perennial indecision of student life, in the ferocious defense of what we’ve invested too much in not to believe.

*Kudos to lighting designer Tim Wratten and sound designer Kevin Heard for so deftly transporting everyone to a dimly lit bar, buzzing with beery conversation.