By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
Employing its most expansive stage set in quite awhile, the Rogue Theatre has mounted a compelling production of Clifford Odets' remarkably timely “Awake and Sing.” Filled with somber brown tones and textures that somehow suggest tints of gold, director Bryan Falcon catches that same spirit with his actors.
The year is 1935 in a New York City winter filled with discontent, to be sure. Even here in Tucson you can feel the scratchy wet wool of those times. Odets wanted to capture the plain talk of working class people, using simple literary tools to create artistry filled with longing and frustration.
What would this family be posting on Facebook, one wonders, if Facebook had been available? The grandfather is a dedicated communist, the uncle a gloating opportunist, the daughter a dreamer depressed that life has dealt her such a sorry hand, and the son bitten by the bug to be in show business.
Minding after this mental garden of chaotic brambles is the mother, determined her family will survive but angry it keeps taking so long. The father, meanwhile, wonders why they can't all just get along.
Doesn't that mix of emotions sound pretty much like anybody's newsfeed on Facebook?
This ensemble of actors is perfectly balanced, believably implying a thick layer of depression that keeps them all from changing much of anything. It's enough to make you want to jump on stage shouting “Snap out of it!”
But that line isn't in the play. That sort of optimism is so 1950s. And today's movie tales of working class resentment always include lots of hand guns, illicit drugs, high-velocity car chases and massive explosions. You can see what 80 years of American “progress” has brought to our society.
Which is what makes Odets' dialogue and the Rogue production so poignant. We watch these people and feel their pain. And because they seem so real, we feel their helplessness.
There isn't a central character, exactly, who dominates the action. This play is more of a family photo. But the most sympathetic to me was Matt Bowdren's portrayal of the son, Ralph. He admires Eddie Cantor and wants to take up tap dancing. How can you not like a guy like that?
From an acting standpoint, Terry Erbe in a smaller role as the financially more successful Uncle Morty captures that smug and smarmy attitude of the rich uncle everyone would like to hack off their family tree.
David Greenwood plays the grandfather Jacob as an idealistic communist, a true believer not a goofy one. Starkly different from the propagandized Cold War communist we've been taught to believe in.
The wild card in this lot is the war veteran with a game leg, Moe Axelrod, portrayed by Ryan Parker Knox as a guy using false bravado for his life jacket. To this family, Moe is the outsider. He's in their house, but he's not really of their house.
The Rogue's regulars will enjoy seeing Marissa Garcia creating a completely different kind of personality in the 26-year-old daughter Hennie. She is the tense one, determined not to let the limitations of her family define her – and especially determined not to marry the wrong guy.
“What Henny wants,” said Moe sarcastically, “is an Arrow collar guy.”
Steve McKee is also cast against type as the milquetoast schlub, Sam Feinschreiber, who has a little money and is willing to marry Henny. He makes the role work without using any stereotypes.
“Awake and Sing” wants all of us to wake up from our dreams and sing of the truth. To believe in ourselves, instead of believing what we are told. The Rogue Theatre wants that, too, bringing us this deeply moving production like a sad-eyed kick in the pants!
It's the kick you will feel, while walking out of the theater.
Performances continue through Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, plus a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Rogue Theatre, 300 E. University Blvd.
Tickets are $32, student rush 15 minutes before curtain, $15. For details and reservations, 520-551-2053, www.theroguetheatre.org
No comments:
Post a Comment