Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz: Brummtopp explained

(Dylan Hewlitt)

You don't have to know anything about Mennonites, or even care about them, in order to enjoy this play. However, the play is written in language similar to that used in my novel, The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, buggered up English sprinkled with Mennonite Plautdietsch and some High German, but you've all enjoyed plays and sit-coms and movies that use Yiddish expressions and it didn't bother you a bit. Plautdietsch and Yiddish have the same European roots--a klutz is a klutz is a klutz.

In The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz a tumult of conflicting desires is ignited when Obrum Kehler brings his wife - Susch - a broken piano, poison ivy, and a wanna-be Beethoven instead of a washing machine.
 
When Susch asks "What want you with such a thing here on the farm?" Obrum replies "What wants a man with a rainbow in the sky?" And so the Mennonite Low German tradition of "through the flower talk"is introduced into the play. "Talking through flowers" or speaking in metaphors is taken to extremes and eventually the characters have to face up to the consequences of avoiding direct communication.
 
This is a lively play, filled with dramatic and physical action...and it's funny. Music is integral to the story and Beethoven Blatz plays live piano in almost every scene. Lurking in the shadows is the mysterious, sinister, possibly pagan companion of Mennonite New Year's mummers, the Brummtopp. Ultimately, the action of the play brings together a blend of high soaring Beethoven and the earthy rummeling throbbing of this crude instrument made from a barrel, stretched rawhide, and a swatch of horsetail hair.

"For me, the Brummtopp in the play represents the folk culture the characters have sprung from, a folk culture that is outside the church holiday practices that are approved by church leadership. The Brummtopp is primitive, noisy, naughty, and crude. In the play, the Brummtopp frightens and provokes laughter. In the play, only the women play the instrument, whereas traditionally it would be young men who played it. Structurally, the Brummtopp brings a stylized folktale ending to each act."