Phoenix Ivy Council - Southwest Shakespeare Company

The Ivy Phoenix Council and Southwest Shakespeare Company present an evening of intellectual banter and colliding philosophies in a critically acclaimed play that only live, classical theatre can provide.  A reception for our alums will be held at 6:30 to 7:15 pm just prior to the performance.

STORY:  It is October 1517, the beginning of the fall semester at the University of Wittenberg in northern Germany.  Certain members of the faculty and student body are at personal and professional crossroads. Hamlet (senior, class of 1518) after a summer's study in Poland, struggles with the new revolutionary scientific theory that threatens the very order of the universe, resulting in psychic trauma and a crisis of faith for him.  

His teacher and mentor John Faustus (professor, philosophy) has decided at long last to  make an honest woman of his paramour, Helen. 

Included in this fascinating mix of personalities and intellects is Faustus' colleague and Hamlet's instructor and priest, Martin Luther (professor, theology), who is dealing with spiritual and medical consequences.  How these three men's sagas overlap and intertwine and how they end up irrevocably affecting the course of each other's lives is the substance of WITTENBERG, a comedy that reveals the story behind the stories of Hamlet, Doctor Faustus and Martin Luther.

Local critics and patrons alike found Wittenberg to be entertaining and intellectually satisfying in equal measure - a definite theatrical feat!   "Fact plus fiction equals big laughs 

To learn more about Wittenberg go here.