Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories

W&L’s German and Russian Department to Perform Foreign Language Plays

The Brothers Grimm and the Brothers Karamazov will take their turns this week on the Troubadour stage. Generalprobe, in its eighteenth year of performing German language comedy at Washington and Lee, will present Märchenwald II on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, March 5-7 at 7:30 p.m., in the Troubadour Theater.

Both student productions are free and the public is invited. Märchenwald will be performed in German and The Brothers Karamazov in Russian. English synopses will be provided. The Troubadour is located at the corner of Main and Henry Streets.

Building on the success of the first Märchenwald performance in 2005, faculty and students have dramatized five Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales: Snow White, The Golden Goose, Cat-Skin, King Thrush Beard and The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs. Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm narrate from the stage, composing the tales as the actors act them out. But the authors do not always have the situation under complete control, and the whims of the actors contribute to creative changes in the plot.

On Wednesday, March 11, W&L students studying the Russian language will take over the Troubadour stage for The Brothers Karamazov. Accomplished playwright/director Anna Rodionova has created a condensed dramatic version of Dostoevsky’s most famous novel for fourteen characters that features the most important scenes from the narrative underscored with Gypsy music. Intermittent English commentary will aid non-Russian speakers in understanding the plot. Anna Rodionova is directing her eighth Russian play at W&L.