L U T H E R

 BY JOHN OSBORNE

 DIRECTED BY
ANTHONY TUCKEY

THE BRISTOL OLD VIC COMPANY

L I T T L E  T H E A T R E  

 OCTOBER 1st -- 22nd

1968

 

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T H E  C A S T
I N  O R D E R  O F  A P P E A R A N C E :

 

MARTIN LUTHER….
PRIOR….
HANS….
LUCAS….
WEINAND….
TETZEL….
STAUPITZ….
CAJETAN….
MILTITZ….
LEO….
ECK….
KNIGHT….
KATHERINE….
MONKS….

JOHN CASTLE
ROGER BIZLEY
ROBERT ALDOUS
PETER MAY
ANDREW DALMEYER
ROWLAND DAVIES
ROGER BIZLEY
PETER MAY
JOHN WEBB
ROBERT EAST
MICHAEL HAYES
ROWLAND DAVIES
MARCIA WARREN
ANTHONY PAGE, CHRISTOPHER MILES, JAMES HOPE, JOHN CAIRD, DAVID CRAIK, ROGER BALL

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SYNOPSIS

The eloquent and searing chronicle of Luther’s struggles with his conscience and his Church and his search to two fathers, one on earth and one in heaven.  It may also be seen as a parable of modern Europe.

M A R T I N   L U T H E R

1483

Born into a strict and pious mining family in Eisleben in Eastern Germany.

1501

Became a student at Erfurt, then the best university in Germany.

1505

January graduated Master of Arts 

May took up Law to please his father.

July 2nd.  Prostrated by a flash of lightning in a thunderstorm Luther vowed to St. Anne to become a monk if she saved him.

July 17th.  Entered the Augustinian cloister at Erfurt without telling is family.

1507

Celebrated his first Mass

1508-9

Lectured for one semester at the Monastery of Wittenberg, where his brilliant command of theology was admired by John Staupitz, Vicar-General of the Order.

1511

At the insistence of Staupitz, Luther was transferred to Wittenberg.

1512-13

His obsessive doubts about salvation gave birth to his most important concept; that man is not saved by good deeds, but by faith in God.  It was a revolutionary doctrine, but he still considered himself to be orthodox.

1517

Emerged as a practical reformer by preaching against the system of indulgences.

October 31st nailed to the Church door at Wittenberg Castle his 96 Theses “For Elucidation of the Virtues of Indulgences”.

1518

Spring accused of heresy and schism, Luther wrote a defense to the Pope.  He was summoned to Rome, but a meeting was arranged with Cajetan, the Papal Legate in October.

1520

Spring the Pope issued a Bull of Condemnation against Luther and his followers, giving them sixty days to retract.  Luther burned this publicly. December wrote his three great Reform Treatises, attacking abuse in the Church and appealing to secular powers to undertake the business of Reform; suggesting three instead of seven Sacraments, and asserted the freedom of the individual conscience.

1521

 

January the Pope launched a Bull of Excommunication; this the Emperor Charles did not immediately carry out, but called Martin to the Imperial Diet at Worms.

1522

 

March popular support for Luther increased.  Luther came out of hiding and continued his controversial writing, proposing, for example, the marriage of the clergy, and drawing up a reformed Communion Service.  Meanwhile the democratic and nationalist implications of his teaching were being seized upon and transmitted to the discontented mass of people.

1525

 

Spring the peasants of Swabia drew up twelve Articles, demanding the abolition of Serfdom everywhere.  Luther expressed sympathy at first; but when armed revolt took place he wrote in May an appeal for the extermination of the peasants.  His feeling was that Reform could only come with the help of the established powers.  The risings were savagely put down.

Married an ex-nun.

1526

His first son born.  Two other sons and two daughters were to follow.

1525-46

 

Composed hymns, translated the Old Testament, issued innumerable pamphlets, engaged in controversy with other reformers, and worked ceaselessly to maintain the movement he had started.

1546

Died at Eisleben, where he was born.

 

 

 

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