4-24-09
Real Pangs Fizzles at End
Theatre people around the country frequently complain about the theatres that succeed producing “fluff.” Somehow it’s seen as cheating for a company to produce crowd-pleasers—musicals, old chestnuts and the like—rather than working to keep theatre relevant. And as we all struggle to argue for theatre’s importance to our economy and our culture, it’s far easier to make that argument when the work in question speaks to our culture and our times.
By that criteria, Silk Road’s Pangs of the Messiah by Motti Lerner is a success. Set in a near future, it tells the story of a conservative Israeli family who lead a settlement on the West Bank. As the larger political spectrum begins to change and a settlement with the Palestinians seems increasingly likely, they find themselves facing the loss of their home and their community. The crisis rises to a head, disagreements emerge within the family, and they face a choice between violence and optimism.
Discussions of religious extremism in this country tend to focus on Moslems and, to a lesser extent, conservative Christians. But in the land of Israel, hard core Jewish settlers form a potent political force. Harnessed by the Israeli government to control the West Bank, they are now one of many impediments to any peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Of course big ideas only have so much traction on stage without strong characters at the heart of the story. Lerner’s solution is to give us a family who head one of the settlements. The patriarch and rabbi for the community, Rabbi Shmuel (Bernard Beck), brought his family to start a new life 40 years previous. He has made good use of his brother Menachem (Larry Baldacci), his son Avner (Mark Hines) who has been in the U.S. raising funds and sympathy, and his nephew Benny (Brent T. Barnes), who has recently been released from prison after serving time for a bombing attack on a nearby Arab community. As tensions rise, Shmuel’s optimism is opposed by the call for violence by his son and nephew.
Lerner’s not afraid to keep lots of balls in the air. And he’s not shy about using his characters as mouthpieces. The challenge for director Jennifer Green and her capable cast is to keep all these big political arguments personal. In that, they only succeed in part. The family’s affection for each other is clearly tied to the struggle they perceive themselves as part of. Shmuel’s willingness to send his son back to the U.S. immediately upon his return home speaks to the value he places on his son’s part in the fight. But as the play moves along, and, ironically, as the stakes rise, the play becomes less engrossing. The political never feels tied to the personal.
As a portrayal of a family Pangs of the Messiah succeeds for about an act. But as the political stakes rise, the audience’s personal investment recedes until the ending, which should be a shocking act of desperation, instead fizzles. Silk Road’s mission naturally leads to this sort of work, and they deserve credit for it. That this project only succeeds in part in no way minimizes its importance to the art of theatre.
Pangs of the Messiah, Silk Road Theatre
Chris Jones, Tribune—“Jennifer Green’s initially prosaic production is not always the equal of this must-see script. Some of the actors lack definition and pace, especially in the weak first few minutes…But it does get significantly better as it goes, once the likes of Larry Baldacci, Brent T. Barnes and Mark Hines (all strong actors representing settlers with different plans of action) get their formidable teeth into the conflicts of the play, along with the colorful Bernard Beck…And, frankly, the script it so compelling, you won’t find yourself focusing on anything but the issues of the play, crucial concerns of the moment.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“The paint-by-numbers characters are deployed leadenly in Jennifer Green’s production, which features an equally leaden English translation by Anthony Berris. And Lerner’s predictable drama is not only more heartburn than heartache, but a historical hash.”
Kerry Reid, Reader—“Lerner overplays the fruitfulness-barrenness dichotomy, contrasting Chava’s fecundity with Tirtzah’s fertility problems and playing up Benny’s choice between orchards and armaments. But the occasional uncertainty of the performances and didacticism of the dialogue can’t derail what’s essentially an aching threnody for those tossed in the waves of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Lerner avoids the temptation to demonize, leaving us with a sorrowful meditation on how it will all end. ‘Questions are over,’ Shmuel says early on. ‘Maybe there’ll be some answers.’ Maybe. But Lerner’s play cautions that the answers we get may not be the ones we want.”
Kris Vire, Time Out—“Green’s mostly dignified Midwest premiere of Lerner’s 1987 play aptly conveys the tension of an environment where the political is always immediately personal; Mike Tutaj’s evocative TV-news video projections punctuate the action with broader context. The cast does its best to turn Lerner’s straw men into human beings (Dana Black, as Shmuel’s ambivalent daughter-in-law, contributes the most). But Green’s staging of Lerner’s cop-out ending makes the whole thing seem even more futile. We can only hope that real-world peace negotiations are treated more thoughtfully.”
Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“Like the best playwrights, Lerner doesn’t want to provide answers to questions he knows have no easy answers. He’s just content in asking them through dialogue that is honest, intelligent and oftentimes searing and theatrical. To this end, he’s been aided by a fantastic design team.And so a beautiful living-room setting straight out of the pages of Better Homes and Gardens captures the feeling of close-knit family ties, but smart props (scattered children’s toys) and persnickety costume details (white sneakers stained with blotches of blood) hint at the family tensions simmering underneath, as well as the violence lurking outside.”
Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“Silk Road Theatre Project’s Midwest premiere of Pangs of the Messiah is downright respectable and professionally produced. There’s no denying that the play and the production will make you think. Whether you enjoy it is another matter. Lerner doesn’t temper the drama with much humor (other than a running gag about Rabbi Shmuel always changing his shirt). Without any moments of true levity for relief, Pangs of the Messiah progresses like one heavy stone after another being laid atop your chest.”
The Tempest, Steppenwolf Theatre Co.
Chris Jones, Tribune—“In her endlessly fascinating, spectacularly staged, amped-up, and yet relentlessly chilly Tempest, which I saw Saturday night, [Frank] Galati’s Prospero wanders perpetually at the side of the action, like a white-bearded version of Steve Jobs unsure whether to quit. His Ariel, played by the multi-talented Jon Michael Hill, might be a servant in Shakespeare’s play, but in this production, he seems to have been running the island for years. Perched high in the air with head in a Mac Book and hand on a Wii-like wand, this high-tech, tricky Ariel is like an overachieving employee at the Apple Store’s Genius Bar, who long ago eclipsed the knowledge of his manager.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“One of Shakespeare’s late plays, The Tempest reveals the writer in the full embrace of a lifetime of experience of human nature, and as a poet in complete command of his characters’ voices and souls. Landau could have devised a production that simply dazzled the senses—and this one certainly does that with a thrillingly thunderous storm at sea, an eye-popping rite of spring that rains giant poppies, and all manner of clowning and acrobatics. But more crucially, she and her actors have dived headlong into the meaning of every word in this gorgeous play, and tapped into its most profound emotions.”
Nina Metz, New City—“[Frank Galati]’s a performance that stands apart—in good ways and bad, for it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the show…But again, how does it all fit together? This is a production overstuffed with spirits that perform aerial tricks on ropes (why?), a field of larger-than-life poppies that descend from the sky (why?) and a ridiculous array of pink and purple-hued suits (why?). More to the point, why is Steppenwolf doing this play? I’m afraid this production doesn’t even come close to answering that question.”
Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“The sound and fury come through intact. But the uneven acting styles and strengths of this supposed ensemble serve the verse less dramatically and sometimes the poetry not at all. It’s one more attack of the “all dressed up and nowhere to go” phenomenon…Several—as in too many—actors turn inspiration into recitation, over-emphasizing key words to expose how much they’ve memorized rather than dramatized their lines. That’s the curse of technique-weak Americans doing Shakespeare, who, putting the sounds over the sense, miss the emotion behind both. In a way Shakespeare never intended, Prospero’s island is isolated by the performances more than the plot.”
The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Profiles Theatre
Chris Jones, Tribune—“The main mistake made by Darrell W. Cox’s production is that it plays right into the seemingly cartoonish quality of the first act, instead of pushing back against it and forging a more complex stylistic world. It might not be believable to us, but it is believable to Lisa, and this production camps it up and completely misses that central reality.Nonetheless, there are several fascinating performances in the Dissocia sequence, including a fabulously honest turn from a young actor named Jessie Fisher, who is one of several strong women in this show.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Benson’s evocation of Lisa’s resignation, slow rebellion and aching sadness—all exacerbated by the selfish (or self-preserving) actions of her sister and boyfriend (expertly played by [Jessie] Fisher and [Jeremy Lee] Cudd)—Is extraordinary as [Anthony] Neilson’s play takes on an almost Beckettlike otherworldliness. Boldly directed by Darrell W. Cox (with an ingenious set by Thad Hallstein and imaginative costumes by Ricky Lurie), this is one of the largest, most elaborate productions in Profile’s history. And if you stick around you will not be disappointed.”
Leon Hilton, Reader—“Director Darrell W. Cox and his resourceful collaborators use every inch of the tiny Profiles space to conjure Dissocia’s bizarre geography, and the pop-up fluorescent stage design captures the spirit of Chicago store-front theater at its most exuberant. But Cox’s actors struggle to find a tonally consistent approach to the unruly material. Part of the problem is Neilson’s script, which lurches awkwardly between Wes Anderson-esque ironic detachment and in-yer-face aggression. The cast eventually finds a terrific sense of momentum, but as the first act reaches its uproarious climax, I wasn’t entirely sure why I was laughing.”
Kris Vire, Time Out—“It’s an interesting experiment in form; Neilson essentially dramatizes Lisa’s inner life, then attempts to eschew dramatization of her outer life. Compared to Dissocia, the real world is distressingly (and, for a playwright, daringly) mundane: Much of the second act consists of near-wordless scenes of nurses administering medication, day flowing into night and back again. Cox’s direction of this U.S. premiere can be overly frenetic in the first act, but Benson’s Lisa makes a terrific anchor, and the suffocating stillness of the second act chills.”
Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“In Darrell W. Cox’s stunning staging Dissocia becomes an enthralling, song-strewn topsy-turvy playland, its delicious dialogue teeming with wordplay and all-skewering satire. Pain was never so delightfully disguised. The second act brings a total transformation. Its setting, Lisa’s hospital room, coldly contrasts with the vibrant inner world of ‘Dissocia.’ Here Lisa (a haunting Somer Benson) swallows pills, argues with the staff, and tentatively reassures her very frightened boyfriend (who may or may not return on Sunday). This is how Lisa looks to the world.”
Catey Sullivan, Windy City—“Director Darrell W. Cox manages to pull committed performances from a cast burdened with roles that seem like the fantasy of a disturbed six-year-old. The audience might be totally confounded ( and completely annoyed ) by Lisa’s nonsensical adventures dropping bombs from a jerry-rigged laundry basket, listening to the screams of an anal-rape victim and facing down a lover/monster whose climactic appearance is never explained, but the cast pours everything it has into these antics…Sincerity notwithstanding, it’s impossible to recommend Dissocia. Lisa may have lost an hour. There’s no reason for audiences to do so as well.”