Ludwig von Beethoven and Quasimodo present a panel discussion on their failure to create an impossible sound called for in a stage direction in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

The Hunchback Variations was made into a chamber opera for piano, cello and two voices.The score can be requested via the Rights Inquiries page. 

Praise for The Hunchback Variations

“Theater Oobleck playwright Mickle Maher is a master at creating complex, paradoxical works that encompass their own contradictions. While his comedies leave a somber aftertaste, his forays into satire with a serious edge are gut-bustingly funny…In The Hunchback Variations Maher mocks academic examinations of the creative process even as he engages in a complicated deconstruction of creativity.” —Chicago Reader

“Tantalizes with swirling bits about the nature of creativity, grief, the endless universe, the physical world, the theater…a thinking man’s vaudeville. You won’t soon forget it.” —Houston Press

“Terrifically funny for even non-geniuses… I haven’t laughed this much at a show in an awfully long time.” —Applause Meter

“Seriously crazed…acquires rueful resonance, even amid the resolute absurdity of it all.” —Houston Chronicle

Named “One of the top five productions of the year” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch