First off: Full Disclosure. I am a Beethovenophile, which is a pseudo-intellectually fancy way of saying I’m crazy about all things having to do with the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven: His music. His words. His story.

So, I met with great interest news that Purple Rose Theatre was going to present “33 Variations” by Moisés Kaufman. The drama will be performed on select dates through June 1 at the Purple Rose in Chelsea.

If you have the opportunity: Go! It is an outstanding play that explores important questions almost all of us present in the world may one day face. Even if you don’t care about the Ninth Symphony or the Moonlight Sonata, go! You will experience theater at its finest.

Personally, “33 Variations” represents a transformative experience that left me a better person. Why? I witnessed many of the ideas expressed through Beethoven’s music and life brought to life through the stage. In the process, I also learned new lessons that I will never forget.

Playwright Kaufman may be best known as a co-writer of The Laramie Project, a dramatization of a community’s real-life responses to the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a young University of Wyoming student. Kaufman and his colleagues at the Tectonic Theater Project interviewed hundreds of people in the town of Laramie to create characters for the stage. Through a series of sketches, the community reveals a complicated tragedy and details its own unique response to hate.

The idea, perhaps, is to use the important lessons remembered by the people who knew Mr. Shepard and his attackers in order to create a better world for all. Similarly, we find lessons for us all in 33 Variations. The work illustrates how the very passions that threaten to overwhelm us can also save us. It is a rare theatrical treat, filled with surprises for the heart and mind.

33 Variations centers on an acclaimed fictional musicologist, Katherine Brandt, and the object of her professional passion: Ludwig van Beethoven. The story is set in two times: 19th century Vienna, where we experience scenes from the city where Beethoven lived most of his professional life; and 21st century Bonn, the city of Beethoven’s birth and home to one of the world’s great archives — the original manuscripts and sketch pads on which Beethoven composed and we today can discern “the Master’s” thoughts.

The lives of the great composer and an obscure music publisher come into our world as Katherine discovers the story behind some of the most sublime music ever created, the Diabelli Variations. After achieving fame as a composer, Beethoven in the story and in real-life wrestled for years with a commission he could not immediately complete: a variation on a simple waltz created by his music publisher and friend, Anton Diabelli, whom Beethoven, according to his biographer and secretary Anton Schindler, on occassion called “Diabolus.”

In the present day, Katherine struggles to unlock the mystery behind Beethoven’s obsession with the simple waltz. Unlike Mozart who composed in his imagination and transcribed his thoughts almost directly to paper, Beethoven committed his ideas to paper, writing and re-writing the musical ideas that often came to him in the natural splendor of Austria.

Using Beethoven’s own writings — the compositions he created, the quotes recorded by his friends and family, and the “Conversation Books” he used to communicate after he became deaf — Katherine explores the drive of the creative genius. The written record serves as a map that preserves his complicated music. What’s more, the documents reveal his thinking and his intentions.

It all sounds complicated. And it is complicated, as revealed in one remarkable scene where several characters speak simultaneously across the vast gulf of time and space and person. Yet, we in the audience understand, hearing the signal emerge loud and clear from the noise.

As she races against time and her failing health, Katherine discovers the true nature of Beethoven’s genius and gains insight into the other great mystery in her life: her daughter.

33 Variations premiered at Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage and later opened on Broadway in March 2009. The Broadway production featured Jane Fonda in the leading role and received five Tony Award nominations.

Let me add a word about the audience: They were world-class, too. During the 95-minute production, there was not one cough. No cell phones beeped. No one talked or even whispered. They were there for the performance.

Directed by Guy Sanville, the cast includes David Bendena (Chelsea, MI), Daniel C. Britt (Hamilton, OH), Lauren Knox (Macomb, MI), Richard McWillams (Dayton, OH), Michelle Mountain (Grass Lake, MI), Michael Brian Ogden (Berkley, MI), and Rhiannon Ragland (Flint, MI).

The photo above includes Richard McWilliams, Michelle Mountain, David Bendena and Daniel C. Britt who will perform in the Purple Rose Theatre Company production, “33 Variations.” The image is a detail from a photograph by Sean Carter Photography.

If I believed in subjective rating scales, I’d give “33 Variations” at the Purple Rose Five Stars out of Five Stars. In memory of the great Siskel and Ebert, who I believe in for their appreciation of cinema and the narrative arts, I’d say: “Two thumbs up.”