Hamming It Up Big Time in 'Wittenberg'

Scott Greer as Faustus, Sean McNall as Hamlet and Chris Mixon as Martin Luther in "Wittenberg." Photos by Sam Hough.

BY TAMARA BECK

IT is 1517, the height of the Renaissance.

Dr. John Faustus (Scott Greer), who has not yet sold his soul to gain empirical knowledge, and the Rev. Martin Luther (Chris Mixon), whose dictates will soon establish the Protestant Reformation, are vying for the allegiance of young Prince Hamlet (Sean McNall), a student at the University of Wittenberg.

Playwright David Davalos uses William Shakespeare’s well-worn conceit about Hamlet’s indecisiveness to set up his comedy, “Wittenberg.” The Prince is on the fence. Should he follow the teachings of Dr. Faustus (reason) or those of Martin Luther (faith)?

Under the direction of J.R. Sullivan, the Pearl Theatre Company production at City Center Stage II through 17 April, makes hay of this amusing if esoteric material. The flimsy premise underpinning “Wittenberg” allows DD to cleverly reference Christopher Marlowe’s “The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus” along with Shakespeare’s “Hamlet" and Luther’s “The Ninety-Five Theses.”

“Wittenberg” is a play that debates religion and philosophy using historically or histrionically recognizable characters. In the comedy, DD slyly co-opts lines from its source materials. For instance, “To believe, or not to believe,” Dr. Faustus tells Hamlet. “That is the question?,” Hamlet responds.

Prince Hamlet (Sean McNall) has difficult personal choices to make in "Wittenberg."

Anachronisms abound:
– Faustus sings the blues at a beer hall during Oktoberfest;
– When Hamlet first enters, dressed as a 16th century nobleman and student, he is wearing earbuds;
– As The Eternal Feminine, Joey Parsons plays varying females, all of them out of joint with the times. She is Helena, a former nun, and Faustus’ ladylove, dressed as a flight attendant. At the beer hall where Faustus sings, she is also a waitress. She is a dead ringer for the St. Pauli Girl.

SG has a fine voice and he straddles contemporary views and Faustus' 16th century wisdoms with ease and charm. SN throws himself bodily into a portrayal of this moody and sometimes haunted Hamlet. But since he will be king, he doesn’t really have to make a choice of his course of study. As Luther, CM has very little of the fun. For the most part he plays the straight man to SG’s comic turns.

“Wittenberg” fails to convince that the dichotomy of choice and orthodoxy, doubt and belief, are central issues in our lives or even in the lives of its central characters. After all, Luther, to Faustus’ delight, winds up questioning the dogma of the church in Rome. Faustus, on the otherhand, falls victim to the humbug expressed in the lyrics of the pop tune, “Que Sera Sera,” albeit parodied to fit the setting and circumstances of “Wittenberg.”

Faustus (Scott Greer) has a sidebar with The Eternal Feminine (Joey Parsons) in "Wittenberg."

The first act of “Wittenberg” posits paradoxes, pitting the soul against the intellect. Faustus’ mantra is “Question everything.” Luther is defined by his complete obeisance to the scriptures. In Act II, it flounders then sinks into a sea of glib, modernist facts.

Ultimately, “Wittenberg” is a shallow comedy about deep ideas.

Visit http://www.pearltheatre.org/ to learn more about “Wittenberg.”

Encore for Shakespeare in the Park Rep

“LAST year’s experiment in rep was a brilliant success,” The Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis announced recently, “allowing us to create an acting company of unparalleled depth and ability, and giving us two wonderful productions, “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Winter’s Tale.”

The Public continues its “experiment” this year with a repertory program for its 2011 edition of Shakespeare in the Park. “Measure for Measure” and “All’s Well That Ends Well,” two lesser known of William Shakespeare’s works, sometimes said to be his “problem plays,” since they are comedies with dark moods and subject matter. They run from 6 June to 30 July and will be staged at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the home of Shakespeare in the Park. While the performances are free and open to the public, tickets are required.

Daniel Sullivan helms the production of “All’s Well That Ends Well.” “Measure for Measure” will be directed by David Esbjornson.

Shakespeare in the Park returns to the Delacorte Theater this summer in repertory with “Measure for Measure” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Photo by Joseph Moran.

The cast for the productions includes a large number of well-known actors. Among them are Broadway veteran, two-time Tony Award-winner and inductee into the Theater Hall of Fame, John Cullum playing Escalus in “Measure for Measure” and the King of France in “All’s Well That Ends Well.” JC, who is well-known for his role on television’s “Northern Exposure, was seen recently in the Broadway production of “The Scottsboro Boys” (http://www.vevlynspen.com/2010/11/scottsboro-boys-puts-on-happy-face.html)

Andre Holland, currently appearing in “The Whipping Man” at the Manhattan Theater Club, will play Claudio in “Measure for Measure” and take on the role of Bertram in “All’s Well That Ends Well.” (http://www.vevlynspen.com/2011/03/in-whipping-man-also-freeing-hurts.html)

Reg Rogers, recently Jacques Cornet's half-brother, Zeus-Marie Pinceposse, in “A Free Man of Color,” is Lucio in “Measure for Measure” and Parolles in “All’s Well That Ends Well.” (http://www.vevlynspen.com/2010/11/free-man-of-color-banished-children-of.html)

Michael Hayden, who has appeared on Broadway in numerous plays, including “Judgment at Nuremberg,” “Festen” and musicals like “Carousel,” will play Angelo in “Measure for Measure” and the Second Brother Dumaine in “All’s Well That Ends Well.”

A veteran of The Public Theater, as well as Broadway (“Caroline or Change,” “Radio Golf,” “Merrily We Roll Along” to name a few), Tonya Pinkins will appear as Mistress Overdone in “Measure for Measure” and the Countess in “All’s Well That Ends Well.”

Anne Parisse, who has first-rate credits for performances in, among others, “Clybourne Park,” “Becky Shaw” and “The Credeaux Canvas,” will be Mariana in “Measure for Measure” and Helena in “All’s Well That Ends Well.”

Visit www.shakespeareinthepark.org to learn about Shakespeare in the Park. – By Tamara Beck

Political Machinations and Smalltown Mores

Peter Friedman, Mark Blum, Mare Winningham, Katharine Powell and Lois Smith, above, in “After the Revolution.” Photo by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

POLITICAL lives, or just everyday, small town lives, figure in three plays. “After the Revolution” and “Middletown” are both exciting new plays, while “Rosmersholm” is still current and timely after nearly a century and a half.

“After The Revolution,” written by Amy Herzog and directed by Carolyn Cantor is having its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater through 12 Dec.

AH has hung a poignant and personal family drama on a political scarecrow. Even now, after the fall of the Soviet Union, many Americans are frightened of Communists and Communism.

The Josephs is a clan with a legacy of activism, inherited from Joe, who, according to family legend, refused to name names at the McCarthy hearings. Joe, who died a year before the play begins, and his widow, Vera (Lois Smith) , were Communist ideologues.

It’s always a pleasure to see LS; here she is marvelous as the dry family matriarch, single-minded in her devotion to her late husband’s legacy. Despite the fact that she has difficulty remembering basic words for simple things, she still has all the political certitude of her youth.

Mare Winningham as Mel is sweet and natural in a small role as a “belle mere.”

The next generation of Josephs is a people of conviction in keeping with their patriarch’s heritage. Joe’s sons, Ben (Peter Friedman) and Leo (Mark Blum) carry on the legacy to a more and lesser degree. Ben is a teacher who preaches to and sometimes converts his students to his left-wing ideology. He is torn between his loyalty to his father’s memory and devotion to his daughter. Leo has a less complicated relationship to the family’s ideological past.

Ben’s daughter, Emma (Katharine Powell) is the bright pride of the family. Even before graduating from law school, she established the Joe Josephs Foundation to defend the rights of those oppressed by racism and social injustice. Her biggest case is the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, accused of shooting police officer Daniel Faulkner in the face in 1981 and still sitting on death row. In her foundation appeals, she compares the conviction of MA-J with the persecution of her grandfather.

David Margulies as Morty, a donor to the Foundation, gives a funny and intelligent portrayal of a man who did not stand up when names were named and who won’t make the same choice now.

This is a story of family pride and disillusion. During the course of “After the Revolution,” Emma questions many family beliefs, and deeply held political certainties and suffers a paralyzing crisis of faith. Emma’s sister, Jess (Meredith Holzman), is freshly out of rehab and is not involved in the family’s politics. She helps Emma reconcile with the family’s dark secret.

Austin Pendleton and Bradford Cover in “Rosmersholm.” Photo by Gregory Costanzo.

Another political play is Henrik Ibsen’s “Rosmersholm” in which lofty ideals come up against cold realties, secrets threaten to destroy carefully constructed facades, friendships are threatened and so on.

This new and lively adaptation from Mike Poulton is directed by Elinor Reinfield, at the Pearl Theatre Company in City Center’s Stage II.

Johannes Rosmer (Bradford Cover) is Margo White's (Rebecca West) dream of an idyllic future. Doctor Kroll (Austin Pendleton), a vicious conservative humbug and Rosmer’s brother-in-law, has similar hopes for the man. After his defeat and his party’s downturn in the elections, Doctor Kroll wants to put up an impeccable candidate. Father Rosmer, the doctor believes, can save his conservatives from democratic rabble. Rosmer, however, has succumbed to Rebecca’s liberalism. He has also abandoned his faith and renounced his priesthood.

Rebecca’s machinations do harm to her ambitions and to her heart’s desire. In the year since her friend, Beata – Rosmer’s wife – committed suicide, Rebecca has insinuated herself into his household. She sees her chance to use the respected Rosmer name to do good and offer people real opportunities for a better, more enlightened life.

The rabble Doctor Kroll fears is represented by a complete pragmatist, Peder Mortensgaard (Dominic Cuskern). In his past and more puritanical set of mind, Rosmer had Mortensgaard ex-communicated. The latter has survived to run a left-wing paper, giving the people, as he puts it, what they want. He, too, is a demagogue, and disinterested in an alliance with Rosmer now that Rosmer is no longer a priest.

Rosmer is the only principled man left in Norway. His religious defection, his wife’s suicide and his living in the house with Rebecca all compromise his chance to be a political force. Eventually, Rosmer and Rebecca join in an apotheosis of despair.

“Middletown” is not about politics but about life. Its sheer ordinariness is a kind of despair. Life and death are the human condition that Will Eno’s new play, premiering at the Vineyard Theatre through 5 Dec., reveals.

Linus Roache and Heather Burns at opening night of "Middletown." Photo from Vineyard Theatre Facebook page.

This reviewer must credit her husband for his favorable comparison of “Middletown” to “Our Town.” With this inaugural Horton Foote Award winner for Most Promising New Play of 2010, WE has written an homage to Thornton Wilder’s classic. It’s a funny and bleak look at life in a small town.

Standouts among an outstanding “Middletown” cast are: Michael Park’s brutal but sympathetic cop; Linus Roache’s jack-of-all-trades, John Dodge, and Heather Burns' sweet town newbie and soon-to-be-mom, Mary Swanson.

James McMenamin is marvelous as the town’s ne’er do well whom it is revealed near the end of the play is named Craig. Georgia Engel is fastidiously upbeat as the librarian who seems to know everybody.

From the introduction scene in “Middletown” given by a Public Speaker (David Garrison) to the end, language – words, verbiage – plays a big part in the drama. In one scene, John is lying under Mary Swanson’s sink. He is talking as he is working. At first it is easy to understand him clearly, then his speech becomes distorted in the cabinetry. Mary Swanson agrees with him, thinking she gets his meaning, but it is evident that she does not. “Well no, you’re just making sounds with your mouth," she informs John.

In "Middletown," communication is simple and, very complicated.

Visit www.playwrightshorizons.org to learn more about “After the Revolution,” and Playwrights Horizon, and http://www.pearltheatre.org/index.php to learn more about “Rosmersholm,” and The Pearl Theatre Company, and http://www.vineyardtheatre.org/show-middletown.html to learn more about “Middletown” and the Vineyard Theatre Company.

Tamara Beck is President, Clean Lists Associates, Inc, an association management firm. And an avid theater-goer.