Politics dominate theater in 1908 and still resonate today
It’s been suggested that, from time to time, perhaps, my reviews are a bit political for a theater column. My response is that theater is a political act, but I concede the point. Fair enough. But what’s a fellow to do when the big musical downtown (“Parade,” recently closed at the Ahmanson) is a Tony-winning Broadway revival about a southern mob lynching a northern Jew for a crime he did not commit? (There’s more to it than that, but bear with me.)
What about “44 – The Obama Musical,” also recently at the Kirk Douglas, where (to quote the production press release) “Barack Obama’s election… ended racism forever,” and the show tells “the story of Obama you won’t read about in history books…because history books are now banned in most states”?
What about Strife, in repertory at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum (with plays by Shakespeare and Chekov) through Sat., Oct. 4? Written in 1908 by John Galsworthy (best known for “The Forsyte Saga”), “Strife” tells the story of a wildcat strike at an Edwardian tin plate factory in Northern England. Co-directors Ellen and Willow Geer transfer the setting to the Pittsburgh steel mills of the Gilded Age and let rip an epic battle between capital and labor. This may be the best cast and tightest production I have seen at the Theatricum in a long time, and they are aided by Galsworthy’s refusal to turn his text into a polemic.
A SCENE from “Strife” at Will Greer Theatricum Botanicum.
Galsworthy was considered the dramatic equal of George Bernard Shaw in his time, but unlike Shaw, who was committed to socialist ideals, Galsworthy tried to show the best in everyone. The factory owners believe they are paying the workers a fair wage. The workers really do need more. The union, caught in the middle, tries to get everyone to compromise, which people, when feel their way of life is being threatened, rarely do. It takes the death of impassioned strike leader Gerald C. Rivers’ wife (Earnestine Phillips) and the removal by the board of the company’s founder (the formidable Frank Ross) in a coup led by his liberal son to give the wavering union negotiator (Brian Wallace) the chance to finally effect a compromise between them.
Galsworthy’s bitter irony is that after all the “strife,” personal and political, the compromise the parties agree to is exactly the document they rejected months earlier. The human cost, not the economic one, is at the play’s—and production’s—heart, and the large, committed cast brings the struggle to life with admirable clarity and conviction.
Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932, but post-WWI British writers considered him (and other Edwardians) old-fashioned and out of touch. Perhaps they were right, but compared to the flood of “relevant” plays by new writers that we’ve had here in the past few years, Galsworthy speaks to the strife of the moment and should be seen by everyone, no matter which cable news channel you follow, theatricum.com; 310-455-2322.
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If you do want an escape from the political, try the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein, at The Group Rep in NOHO, through Sun., Aug. 31. The play explores the struggle for independence, respect and recognition by women in a post-1960s world (Yes—it’s a comedy!). For tickets, call 818-763-5990.
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Or better yet, see the Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt musical, The Fantasticks, the longest-running off-Broadway musical in theater history, at the Ruskin Theater in Santa Monica through Sun., Aug. 24, ruskingrouptheatre.com; 310-397-3244.
The original production opened on May 3, 1960, and closed Jan. 13, 2002, after 17,162 performances. Two days before opening night, U.S. spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers had been shot down over Russia. The week before closing, Enron’s financial collapse was front page news. That’s history; those are facts.
But it’s the theater that gives us hope.
Category: Entertainment
