First Play and My Rating System

This weekend my dad and I watched 33 Variations. This play is about the 33 variations that Beethoven wrote on the famous waltz by Diabelli. The main character, Doctor Katherine Brandt, studies classical music and tries to uncover why Beethoven spent so much time during the end of his life on this waltz. She does not understand why he would waste his time on this waltz. Throughout the play both Beethoven and the Doctor become progressively ill. Beethoven starts to become deaf, which frustrates him and the people around him immensely. But, he still continues to write the variations. Doctor Katherine has ALS, and she becomes increasingly worse throughout the play. This also affects her and the people around her.

The play was absolutely amazing!! I loved it!!!

Before I give this play a rating, I would like to talk about my rating system. This rating system is not very original, but I feel it works well. A play, movie, or song will be rated on a one to ten system. One is the best, and ten is the worst. One meaning the piece of entertainment had a minimal amount of mistakes, and ten meaning the piece of entertainment had a very large amount of mistakes.

I am giving this play a one and a half out of ten. I loved this play, and I really did. But, there was one thing missing for me. In my opinion, I feel as though some parts of the play were too slow. Some scenes, when the main character Doctor Katherine was looking through Beethoven's journals, were rather slow. At first, these scenes were very interesting. But, after several similar scenes, I didn't want to watch them any more.

Other than those couple of slow scenes this play was fantastic, and I would absolutely watch the play again!!! One thing that I really enjoyed about this play was the character development. It had great characters that were very well developed, and I identified with the characters. This is a quality I feel every work of art should have. One of the reasons I watch plays and movies is to see a story. If I don't identify with the characters, I feel like the story was not told well enough.

One thing that was different about this play was that I knew the actress, who played the main character, personally. This was such a different experience than I have ever had. Knowing the main character helped me realize how different people are on stage from how they are in real life.

I recommend this play. As far as I know it is not currently on broadway. But, since I just saw it about a week ago, I am fairly certain it is still playing in numerous places around the U.S. If you would like to find out more information about this play you can visit the link above.

Image courtesy of silver summit theatre