The Soul of Wittgenstein

The King’s Head Theatre produces the World premiere of Ron Elisha’s The Soul of Wittgenstein.

The Soul of Wittgenstein offers a fictional account of one of the finest philosopher’s of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein, whilst he was a volunteer hospital porter at Guy's Hospital during World War Two.

1941. Guy’s Hospital, London. A battered copy of War and Peace. An illiterate Cockney dying of cancer and a philosopher handing out pills. Their world is determined by these facts. But is it defined by them? Written by Ron Elisha, winner of four Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, The Soul of Wittgenstein is a pertinent, engrossing, confrontational, yet tender, new play.

Directed by award­-winning Dave Spencer, it asks what happens when we open up, when we put aside our differences, and when we force ourselves to feel. If a dying man questioned what you were doing with your life, how would you answer? And would it be something that you were willing to admit?

Playwright, Ron Elisha, said: “We think of Ludwig Wittgenstein (if we think of him at all) as one of the great geniuses of the 20th century - a philosopher, linguist and logician without peer. We do not think of him as a humble porter at Guy's Hospital in London, which is the role he undertook (incognito) during the war. But genius out of context is the stuff of drama.”

Ron Elisha is a playwright based in Melbourne, Australia. His plays have been produced throughout Australia, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, Israel and France, and have won a number of awards, including four Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, the Mitch Matthews Award (2006) and the Houston International Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay.

Dave Spencer is the Artistic Director of Another Soup, an award-winning and critically acclaimed theatre company he founded in 2010. He is a director and producer, and has recently graduated from the King’s Head Theatre’s Directing Programme. He has previously directed Victorian & Gay (Hope Theatre), Lovett + Todd, and Dorian Gray (King’s Head Theatre), among others.

Trainee Resident Director Scheme
The King’s Head’s Trainee Resident Director Programme takes on four early-career directors to study under and work alongside artistic director, Adam Spreadbury-Maher. This unique opportunity provides each year’s cohort with a holistic grounding in all aspects of theatre production, as well as learning from world-class directors and practitioners in and outside the rehearsal room.