Richard Ugino is the best kind of ham, Elizabeth Mirarchi has a beautiful voice... I could go on, but this would get boring. They're all good. An episodic play like this can be a challenge for actors, with new, important characters appearing late in the action, or for discrete scenes, some never to be seen again, yet all needing to be made real. Brecht's brilliant writing — here in the original translation, to which W. H. Auden contributed — makes the structure workable; the present company's great cleverness and enormous talent make it pulsate with the outsize, exaggerated energy of real life.
Given all that, one might, on first consideration, wonder if the production mutes Brecht's political message in favor of physical comedy and sentiment. I think, though, it's in the power of the story itself, and especially in this brash telling, that the message comes out most forcefully: compassion has the potential to confront, mitigate, even surmount the greed and graft that underline human institutions. "Didn't send enough troops. Embezzled funds. Brought sick horses." Such lines don't need to be overstressed for us to get the ongoing relevance of Brecht's point about corruption and war profiteering; it's in the story as a whole, together with its opposite - the power of compassion. This staging is a brilliant expression of Brecht's wide-angle vision.
Through May 11 at the Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street. Visit the Hipgnosis website for ticket information, or call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250.
Photo (L-R): Pharah Jean-Philippe (The Elder Lady) and Elizabeth Mirarchi (The Younger Lady). Photo by John Castro.
Article comments
1 - Roger
In my research I found happened upon this music for Caucasian Chalk Circle as well. Very nice.