Un text très français


The Balcony
by Jean Genetproduced by The Horizon Theatre Rep, OOB
directed by Rafael de Musso
Scene design: Joseph Kremer
Costume design: Amanda Shafran
with:
Maria Wolf
Rafael de Mussa
Carlo Giuliano
Jon Okabayashi
For those who haven’t run across Jean Genet’s French play The Balcony in a college drama class: it’s set in a brothel. Its opening presents a series of scenes between clients and employees. They’re highly eroticized charades of social power: a gentleman masquarades a priest, a woman a judge, another man a general. The hired professionals play along to reinforce the socio-sexual role-playing, and there’s always a dominant/submissive element of S&M. There’s a stress on the iconic costumes the clientele don.
Meanwhile, there’s a revolution going on in the street. The bordello is aligned with monarchy. When the ancien régime – and its authority figures – fall, the aforesaid johns put on their play clothes and, in the script’s climactic scene, pose for a photo to perpetuate the monarchy’s power. The impression that these people (priest, judge, general) exist is enough to suppress rebellion. In fact, Madame Irma, the Madame of the establishment and the play’s focus, impersonates the queen, who may be dead (but for this playwright, it doesn’t matter if she’s really dead or alive).

It’s happily not my brief to analyze Genet’s uncommonly complex and abstruse text.  

In the The Horizon Theatre Rep’s recent OOB production, Director Rafael de Mussa has eschewed the theatricality that the play’s productions are noted for (mirrors, oversized costumes) and expressed it in human terms. There’s a television on stage channeling footage of real riots, and the sex scenes stress the carnal, not the political. 

De Mussa’s vision is well executed. He’s grappled with this bête noir of the modern canon quite well, if with limited success. The Balcony is, after all, le Tour de France of stage direction. At times it seems to float into unclear surrealism. At other times it’s simply unclear.

One problem is the highly stylized, deliberately obscure quality of Genet’s dialogue. Sometimes a line seems interchangeable among characters, as if its meaning were more important than its expression of character and action. The play is la philosophie first, le drame second (in contrast with a playwright like Checkhov, whose first concern is with les gens).

To make matters worse, no one educates us to lines like “When life departs, the hens cling to a sheet”. We’re not told that “hen” (poule in French), refers to a prostitute. 

At other times it’s unclear whether the characters speak as their real selves or as characters in the fantasy, or the degree to which they’re doing either, or the degree to which we’re not meant to know. A very fine analysis is required here, and the supporting actors, who have the hardest time of it, aren’t quite up to it.

The principle actors serve well, led by a bravura Maria Wolf in the complex role of Madame Irma. She’s a businesswoman, and if she strikes a pose it’s because she’s in the business of posing. Carlo Giuliano gesticulates so extremely that he nearly leaves acting behind, but he does it so well that we believe it. Rafael de Mussa (our director) gives a very solid performance in the pivotal role of Chief of Police, grounded and subtle. Jon Okabayashi gives the most interesting performance. As a wimp with military fantasies, he seems to be struggling to understand himself and the situation. We see him fall in and out of moments of clarity.

The secondary players don’t always fare so well. De Mussa has cast an actress unsuited for the role of Chantal, the prostitute who’s joined the rebellion. Chantal is meant to be an opaque icon of glory, and the actress - not a bad actress - is simply miscast. And while the role itself isn’t major, this is a serious weakness. The character adds complexity the theme of iconography by applying the principle to the resistance. There’s a line: “In every revolution there's the glorified whore who sings an anthem…”
Costume and set are quite well done by Amanda Shafran and Joseph Kremer, respectively.
And so the show works sometimes well, sometimes less well. Whatever its faults, we’re grateful for a company that takes on such a work like this. I'll look for them next season.

Popular posts from this blog

Anouilh's Antigone

There is a moment in Fusion Theatre’s production of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone (at Theatre Row’s Studio Theatre) when Creon says to Antigone “Don’t annihilate me with those eyes.” And indeed, Antigone’s unrelenting stare does seem to be annihilating him, as it’s been annihilating everyone. As Antigone, Eilin O’Dea motivates Creon’s line so well that it seems Anouilh has written it in response to the actress. Anouilh’s play, as this production makes clear, is an important drama. Anouilh reworked Sophocles’ play keeping the ancient Greek names and keeping the action in Thebes. The characters, however, mention tobacco, blood tests, film and cars. The dissonance reminds us that Anouilh’s message of courage and moral responsibility is ageless. Anouilh has created a raisonneur in a character called simply The Chorus. Tragedy, he tells us, “has nothing to do with melodrama”. “In tragedy, argument is gratuitous,” he says, but this is a very strange line; Antigone and Creon will soo...
Read more

C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert

C.S. Lewis lived between 1898 and 1963. He’s best known for his works of fiction such as The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia , although his non-fiction work is arguably more important. He ranks among the foremost 20 th -century Christian apologists and theologians. Max McLean has written a terrific solo show in which he presents Lewis in his study at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1950, C.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert . Mr. MacLean is the show’s actor, and he’s co-directed it with Ken Denison. The script details Lewis’ conversion from atheism to Christianity, delineating the transformation in discrete steps. Lewis begins with his childhood in Belfast: “Mother’s death produced in me a deeply engrained pessimism,” he tells us. And “At 13 I ceased to be a Christian. At that age one scarcely notices.” He was confirmed in The Church of Ireland “in total disbelief.” The script presents us with the structure of Lewis’ life – his time at Oxford, his enli...
Read more

A Blanket of Dust

Image
Photo by Sharon Kinsella In Richard Squires’ play A Blanket of Dust, presented at The Flea Theater by Delphi Film in association with Alfonso Ramos and Eve Pomerance, a woman, Diane, looses her husband in the 9-11 disaster. She’s convinced that the government is responsible for the catastrophe, and campaigns to uncover the conspiracy. She’s a Senator’s daughter, so the issue becomes a family affair. Years later, she becomes involved with Andrew, a book store owner active in the dissident movement. Andrew is also at odds with his parents on political issues (his father is in government but it’s not clear what his position is.) In frustration, Andrew commits suicide - he sets fire to himself - in protest. This is all pretty grim, but, well, it’s a grim world, and it’s good to see issue- committed theater.   Mr. Squires’ keeps his script as lean as the WTC towers. The characters have no identity aside from their attitudes toward the issue, aside from the sketchy romance. ...
Read more