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12/7/2015Theater: Stumbling Brecht | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=a11ba116-0558-4cb6-8acb-ae1c2f5a83b3&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/2Theater: Stumbling BrechtTheater: Stumbling BrechtA MAN'S A MAN * 1/2 out of **** CLASSIC STAGE COMPANYBecause I'm a list-making fool, when I was shuffling through two decades of Playbills and deciding what to keepI also decided to merge all my lists of play-going over the years and then list them alphabetically, then by ratingand then by year. (Sadly, I'm that kind of guy.) The result is my Theater Master List, a quick overview of twodecades of theater-going in New York City as well as some surprises. Despite seeing multiple Shakespeareplays every season, is it possible I've never seen The Merry Wives Of Windsor? Pericles, Prince of Tyre? NoKing John? (And god knows how many other History plays I've missed; they do tend to blur a bit.) No Troilusand Cressida? Heck, one of my favorite playwrights is Tom Stoppard and bizarrely until a few weeks ago I'dnever seen or even read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.So the most famous playwrights surely offer a few blank spots for even avid theater-goers to fill in, since sooften they're represented again and again by the same plays. Bizarrely, I've never seen The Threepenny Opera(the last Broadway revival slipped by) despite loving the score. That gap will be mended thanks to the upcomingversion starring F. Murray Abraham. And while I've seen Brecht's Galileo many times starting in college, it wasAbraham I saw recently in another staging at Classic Stage Company. (You can see this company all over mylist, including quite a few rare four star raves.)They've been on a Bertolt Brecht kick and all credit to them. It's not just the well-known titles like Galileo andThe Caucasian Chalk Circle. Now they've presented the earlier work A Man's A Man, a show they present as aturning point for the playwright, the pivot on which he found his voice and began to discover greatness. Thisproduction directed by Brian Kulick doesn't come close to making the case for A Man's A Man, but we do get asense of the shape of the thing and why it excited them. How can you find your way into a work unless you starttackling it? They've begun the process here and hopefully others will pick up the ball and run with it.(photo by Richard Termine)At first glance, the production design (so often a highlight at CSC, whose bare stage and modest resourcesoften bring out the best in designers) is promising. Paul Steinberg has filled the stage with pillars of garishlyorange oil drums, hinting at the base reason for all colonialism/war and more directly the jungle-setting for muchof the action. Brecht's piece follows soldiers at war in India in 1925, men happy to pillage a local temple whenthey're not avoiding the wrath of their commanding officer or being marched off to Tibet for more "civilizing."Unfortunately, like so much of the show, it promises inventiveness but the drums are so laborious to movearound and position -- here imitating a train, there an elephant -- that it feels more like drudgery than cleverness.The drums are always rolling about, calling attention to themselves, having to be hoisted in and out of the way ofactors trying to enter or leave the scene. You can see all too clearly the effort going into each scene change andthe magic is spoiled.Similarly, Brecht's piece at least intellectually might appeal. Urged on by Kulick's enthusiasm, you can spot theplayfulness on display here, how Brecht was tearing down walls, playing with form and finding his owndispassionate, merciless objectivity.The action of the play is simple. Four soldiers -- members of a machine gun unit -- break into a temple and steal
12/7/2015Theater: Stumbling Brecht | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=a11ba116-0558-4cb6-8acb-ae1c2f5a83b3&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/2some loot. One of them is delayed for roll call and they con a local man named Galy Gay (Allan K. Washington)into taking the place of their friend. When their ruse is almost uncovered, they are desperate to keep the man inplace and slowly bully and brainwash him into taking over the name and persona of their absent friend. It doesn'tquite work until a court martial and potential execution looms -- what man would cling to his identity if it meantlosing his life? Gay becomes a proper soldier and to their horror outshines them all in the machinery of war. Pityus all, Brecht seems to say, for how pitifully malleable we are.The play has many shifts in tone and style but everyone seems to be stuck in their own particular version. Thethree soldiers seem to have wandered in from Gunga Din, lads more playful than rapacious. Jason Babinskycaptures this mood best of the lot. Justin Vivian Bond plays the Widow Begbick, the proprietor of a travelingcanteen and willing participant in their schemes. Bond seems to be in a broad satire. Begbick is a romantic foilfor the murderous leader of their unit Bloody Five (Stephen Spinella in terrific costume and makeup by GabrielBerry). Spinella is in a crushing drama. And as the key central character Gay, Washington straddles the linebetween naivete and Everyman with considerable skill, like Voltaire's Candide in a play by Beckett. His toneseems the most fitting and effective for this work but since everyone is at odds with everyone else stylistically,one can't be sure.It's not a musical at such, but songs punctuate the show. Composer Duncan Sheik has set text by Brecht tomusic with effective results, never more so than the tune "cut" from the show that Bond performs at the end ofintermission before the second act begins. No wonder Bond didn't want to give it up; the tune is the highlight ofthis laborious if noble effort. When Bloody Five reveals how he got his name (blithely executing some Indians forno good reason), the others are revolted, despite their own callous behavior. And when the man they strip downto his bare hunger to survive turns out to be an even more accomplished killer, they feel the horror of Dr.Frankenstein.At least, that's what is suggested. What we feel is the sight of a rarely produced play that we -- and perhaps thetalent involved -- has barely gotten a handle on. Whether it's just an awkward early effort or an unappreciatedwork of substance will take another mounting (or two) to figure out.THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King *** Hard Times ** 1/2 Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ** I Could Say More * The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner ** Machinal *** Outside Mullingar *** A Man's A Man * 1/2
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=a11ba116-0558-4cb6-8acb-ae1c2f5a83b3&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/2Theater: Stumbling BrechtTheater: Stumbling BrechtA MAN'S A MAN * 1/2 out of **** CLASSIC STAGE COMPANYBecause I'm a list-making fool, when I was shuffling through two decades of Playbills and deciding what to keepI also decided to merge all my lists of play-going over the years and then list them alphabetically, then by ratingand then by year. (Sadly, I'm that kind of guy.) The result is my Theater Master List, a quick overview of twodecades of theater-going in New York City as well as some surprises. Despite seeing multiple Shakespeareplays every season, is it possible I've never seen The Merry Wives Of Windsor? Pericles, Prince of Tyre? NoKing John? (And god knows how many other History plays I've missed; they do tend to blur a bit.) No Troilusand Cressida? Heck, one of my favorite playwrights is Tom Stoppard and bizarrely until a few weeks ago I'dnever seen or even read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.So the most famous playwrights surely offer a few blank spots for even avid theater-goers to fill in, since sooften they're represented again and again by the same plays. Bizarrely, I've never seen The Threepenny Opera(the last Broadway revival slipped by) despite loving the score. That gap will be mended thanks to the upcomingversion starring F. Murray Abraham. And while I've seen Brecht's Galileo many times starting in college, it wasAbraham I saw recently in another staging at Classic Stage Company. (You can see this company all over mylist, including quite a few rare four star raves.)They've been on a Bertolt Brecht kick and all credit to them. It's not just the well-known titles like Galileo andThe Caucasian Chalk Circle. Now they've presented the earlier work A Man's A Man, a show they present as aturning point for the playwright, the pivot on which he found his voice and began to discover greatness. Thisproduction directed by Brian Kulick doesn't come close to making the case for A Man's A Man, but we do get asense of the shape of the thing and why it excited them. How can you find your way into a work unless you starttackling it? They've begun the process here and hopefully others will pick up the ball and run with it.(photo by Richard Termine)At first glance, the production design (so often a highlight at CSC, whose bare stage and modest resourcesoften bring out the best in designers) is promising. Paul Steinberg has filled the stage with pillars of garishlyorange oil drums, hinting at the base reason for all colonialism/war and more directly the jungle-setting for muchof the action. Brecht's piece follows soldiers at war in India in 1925, men happy to pillage a local temple whenthey're not avoiding the wrath of their commanding officer or being marched off to Tibet for more "civilizing."Unfortunately, like so much of the show, it promises inventiveness but the drums are so laborious to movearound and position -- here imitating a train, there an elephant -- that it feels more like drudgery than cleverness.The drums are always rolling about, calling attention to themselves, having to be hoisted in and out of the way ofactors trying to enter or leave the scene. You can see all too clearly the effort going into each scene change andthe magic is spoiled.Similarly, Brecht's piece at least intellectually might appeal. Urged on by Kulick's enthusiasm, you can spot theplayfulness on display here, how Brecht was tearing down walls, playing with form and finding his owndispassionate, merciless objectivity.The action of the play is simple. Four soldiers -- members of a machine gun unit -- break into a temple and steal
12/7/2015Theater: Stumbling Brecht | Evernote Web
https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=a11ba116-0558-4cb6-8acb-ae1c2f5a83b3&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/2some loot. One of them is delayed for roll call and they con a local man named Galy Gay (Allan K. Washington)into taking the place of their friend. When their ruse is almost uncovered, they are desperate to keep the man inplace and slowly bully and brainwash him into taking over the name and persona of their absent friend. It doesn'tquite work until a court martial and potential execution looms -- what man would cling to his identity if it meantlosing his life? Gay becomes a proper soldier and to their horror outshines them all in the machinery of war. Pityus all, Brecht seems to say, for how pitifully malleable we are.The play has many shifts in tone and style but everyone seems to be stuck in their own particular version. Thethree soldiers seem to have wandered in from Gunga Din, lads more playful than rapacious. Jason Babinskycaptures this mood best of the lot. Justin Vivian Bond plays the Widow Begbick, the proprietor of a travelingcanteen and willing participant in their schemes. Bond seems to be in a broad satire. Begbick is a romantic foilfor the murderous leader of their unit Bloody Five (Stephen Spinella in terrific costume and makeup by GabrielBerry). Spinella is in a crushing drama. And as the key central character Gay, Washington straddles the linebetween naivete and Everyman with considerable skill, like Voltaire's Candide in a play by Beckett. His toneseems the most fitting and effective for this work but since everyone is at odds with everyone else stylistically,one can't be sure.It's not a musical at such, but songs punctuate the show. Composer Duncan Sheik has set text by Brecht tomusic with effective results, never more so than the tune "cut" from the show that Bond performs at the end ofintermission before the second act begins. No wonder Bond didn't want to give it up; the tune is the highlight ofthis laborious if noble effort. When Bloody Five reveals how he got his name (blithely executing some Indians forno good reason), the others are revolted, despite their own callous behavior. And when the man they strip downto his bare hunger to survive turns out to be an even more accomplished killer, they feel the horror of Dr.Frankenstein.At least, that's what is suggested. What we feel is the sight of a rarely produced play that we -- and perhaps thetalent involved -- has barely gotten a handle on. Whether it's just an awkward early effort or an unappreciatedwork of substance will take another mounting (or two) to figure out.THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King *** Hard Times ** 1/2 Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ** I Could Say More * The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner ** Machinal *** Outside Mullingar *** A Man's A Man * 1/2