19:30, Fri 29th November – Sun 1st December 2024 at Fitzpatrick Hall
Michaelmas Week 7 to Week 8

PROFESSOR BERNHARDI IS COMING TO THE FITZPAT FOR MICHAELMAS WEEK 7

Arthur Schnitzler's seminal 1912 work, translated with vigour and flair by Samuel Adamson, will be landing in Cambridge between the 29th November and 1st December!!!

Vienna, 1900. A Jewish doctor prevents a Catholic priest from absolving a dying patient. A witch hunt ensues.

The play itself, which was banned shortly after its first performance in Bavaria, provides a gripping and intense depiction of the innate frictions between science and religion. The titular Bernhardi, having refused a priest entry to the room of a dying girl for fear she might realise the end is near and pass away in fear and pain, is subject to overwhelming professional and public scrutiny. The court of public opinion frowns upon Bernhardi even more spitefully once the fact of his Jewish identity is used as a mark of supposed bias against the priest he dismissed. In the face of a foul and pervasive antisemitism, Bernhardi struggles to be judged on his professional merit alone as those around him become increasingly polarized.

In an age where the 'town forum' froths with more fervor than ever before across all places of discourse, online or otherwise, Professor Bernhardi is a work which demands viewing. At its core, the play presents the highest stakes imaginable: the struggle for the human spirit to define itself in the face of forces desperate to confine and silence it.

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