Fugue state

What sparks us to create? Is it a simple and sublime theme that sets us off? Is it the grand design of a Muse whispering in our ear? Or is it the baser impulse of paying our bills and our rent?

For Ludwig Van Beethoven — commissioned to write a variation on a simple waltz by Anton Diabelli back in 1819 — it was a combination of all three.

In Red Turnip’s third season opener, 33 Variations, we follow Katherine Brandt, Beethoven scholar and ALS sufferer (played remarkably by Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino), as she tries to uncover why such a great composer would take on such a piddling task (Diabelli hoped to gather the variations by Germany’s best composers and publish them, sort of a “remix collection” of his waltz).

Despite her escalating condition, Katherine leaves her daughter Clara (Ina Fabregas) and male nurse Mike (Franco Chan) behind in the US and heads to Bonn, Germany. She hits the archives to unravel the mysteries of Beethoven (played in counterpart by a masterful Teroy Guzman), but also the mysteries of life, love and the sublime moment in Moisés Kaufman’s award-winning play.

It’s a daring, challenging production, and director Jenny Jamora has conducted it like a maestro. There’s so much to focus on in 33 Variations that you may experience what it’s like to be inside one of Beethoven’s contrapuntal compositions: lines overlap, intersect and crisscross like one of Ludwig’s fugues, echoing themes that resonate by the time the play ends.

Part of the challenge is presenting a non-linear play — Beethoven’s struggles with the “Variations” are shown simultaneously with the struggles of Katherine, Clara and Mike — where even the modern-day narrative flips back and forth between past, future and present. We are encouraged to see time as the Tralfamadorians do in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five: not as sequential moments, but as a simultaneous occurrence — always is, always was, always will be. Further, we are encouraged to see our lives just as Beethoven, in Katherine’s thesis, viewed the “simple” waltz of Diabelli: as a single grain of sand that could yield such remarkable work.

Beethoven himself joked that Diabelli’s 50-second waltz was a “cobbler’s patch,” and took the commission on the advice of his assistant Anton Schindler (a comical Rem Zamora) to earn some ducats. But the simple waltz unlocks something in the great composer, even as he faces the onset of physical decline and total deafness. He sets out to write five or six variations, but spends the next several years unspooling the mysteries of the simple tune. Beethoven, despite his crippling condition, barreled through the experience and developed new compositional strategies; the “33 Variations” are considered a masterwork. Like a pearl of great value, all from a simple grain of sand.

From Katherine’s perspective, there has to be a logical reason behind Beethoven’s choice to take on such a paltry commission; otherwise, the whole exercise reeks of “mediocrity.” Similarly, she views her daughter’s lack of direction in life — despite her many talents — as a sign of mediocrity. “Everything you don’t understand is mediocre,” her daughter spits back. “Maybe Beethoven just liked Diabelli’s waltz.” This is unacceptable to the scholar.

But as Katherine’s condition worsens — from cane to walker to wheelchair to hospital bed — she begins to glimpse Clara’s truth. Our time is indeed fleeting, expanding outward to infinity, and the masterpiece embedded in the grain of sand is actually our lives, and what we leave behind.

Red Turnip member Ana Abad Santos remarked during the press preview of 33 Variations that the company’s 2015 offerings will be “lighter than last season” — which kind of raises a chuckle when you consider that Kaufman’s play concerns pain, suffering, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and crippling deafness. But strangely, you end up feeling the unbearable lightness of being by the final act when the players march toward front stage, bearing a box containing — what? Perhaps the original Beethoven sketches? Perhaps Katherine’s final monograph? Her mortal remains? Or the very essence of life itself?

Kudos to the supporting cast, including Roselyn Perez as archivist Gertrude Ladenburger who becomes Katherine’s closest confidante in Bonn, and Paolo O’ Hara in a comical turn as Diabelli. Unlike most Red Turnip shows, this is a double quartet: eight main characters, several threads at once. But while there are moments of cacophony — echoed in the dissonant sound design at times — the production doesn’t get consumed in chaos, thanks to skillful choreography. “We really had to be in one confined space, overlapping the characters’ movements,” says Jamora. “We wanted it to feel urgent — to express Katherine’s urgency as her disease progresses.”

There are marvelous moments throughout the production. Ejay Yatco, the 24-year-old piano prodigy, accompanies the drama with a counterpoint of “Variations” on a baby grand back of stage; the light boxes lining the walls and lighting effects (by John Batalla) cue us into the action and the mounting loss of control of Katherine and Beethoven; Ed Lacson Jr.’s set design is minimal and crafty, enabling the actors to mime various locales without a single curtain dropping (the play experience is quite different when viewed from various angles); the choreography of PJ Rebullida makes this Red Turnip’s most experimental outing yet. Director Jamora says she’s simply following the stage directions of the original play, but undertaking such a complex production — and pulling off such a variety of effects — again raises the bar for local productions.

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Red Turnip Theater’s 33 Variations runs until Aug. 23 at Whitespace, Makati. Tickets are available through TicketWorld (891-9999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph) or Red Turnip Theater (redturniptheater@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/RedTurnipTheater).