Trigger Warnings -- How Much Warning Can We Expect Regarding the Content of a Play?

Whether we pick up a book or go to see a play, we don’t always know what the plot is all about. And sometimes that makes it even more interesting. But is that always the case?

Here I offer my thoughts on three works:

The Luckiest by Melissa Ross, Produced by Raven Theater,

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, Produced by Remy Bumppo Theater, and

Klara and the Sun, a Novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Published by Knopf, 2021

Click here to read the article.

“Good Night, Oscar” written by Doug Wright, directed by Lisa Peterson, starring Sean Hayes, produced by The Goodman Theatre

People of a certain age (old) remember Oscar Levant as the acerbic side-kick in movie musicals, the quick-witted panel member on TV game shows, and the concert pianist known for interpreting the music of George Gershwin (Levant’s contemporary who died in 1937 at age 38). As he aged and waxed and waned in popularity, his mental illness became his trademark. He had pronounced tics, shaking hands, a wobbly walk. He was addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, and prescription drugs. During his lifetime, and still today, there is no cure for schizophrenia. Though producing a calming effect in the brain, the drugs debilitated the body. He was a mess, but a polymath with a brilliant mind and a fantastic wit.

Parr and Levant on the Tonight Show

Jack Parr was the TV late-night star personality on NBC in the early 60s. The play is based on Parr’s exploitation of Levant’s “off the rails” persona to grab ratings. It’s one Tonight Show, from LA, an admirable constraint for the roller-coaster of events on stage. Levant is released on a four-hour pass from Mt. Sinai Mental Health Center to his wife’s care, accompanied by a hospital aide carrying a medical bag of emergency drugs. And the action begins…

Sean Hayes (Oscar Levant) has left behind his various TV characters—he is Levant. Brilliant performance.

Emily Bergt (June Levant) embodies the loving, hating, frustrated wife. Her costume by Emilio Sosa is stunning—early 60s Dior at its best.

Peter Grosz (Bob Sarnoff, head of NBC) is sufficiently snide and menacing as he tries to control Parr and later Levant.

Ben Rappaport (Jack Parr) is a conniving, undermining buddy to Levant, but could add depth to the character by using more of Parr’s physical mannerisms and vocal pattern.

Ethan Slater (Max Weinbaum) is a perfect suck-up fanboy to Levant as he preps guests for Parr’s show.

Tramell Tillman (Alvin Finney, the hospital aide) plays it straight, challenged but not overwhelmed by his manic charge.

John Zdrojeski (George Gershwin) looks like a handsome Hugh Hefner slinking around in a silk dressing gown. He shows no empathy to Levant’s problems—because he is a schizophrenic apparition.

We saw the fifth preview of this premier production. It was polished, though much will be tightened as it inevitably goes to Broadway. The crown jewel of the performances is Hayes playing a totally manic version of Rhapsody in Blue. Yes, folks, he is actually playing it. Show-stopping. See Good Night, Oscar if you can get a ticket.

There are not yet production stills, but this video montage will give a feeling for Good Night, Oscar.

"Gem of the Ocean" by August Wilson, produced by The Goodman Theater

Photo credits: Goodman Theater

This play was so strange, it could only be an allegory. Though not the first play that Wilson wrote in his ten-play Pittsburgh Century Cycle – one for each decade from 1900 – 1990, Gem of the Ocean is the first in order of time—set in 1904 when many Blacks were former slaves. Emancipation was 1863, and the war did not end until 1865, so Blacks in their 50s and older were likely born slaves.

Such is the case at the Pittsburgh Hill District home, where Aunt Ester (read “ancestor”) lives with Eli and Black Mary. Neither are related to Aunt Esther, but they take care of her, as does her friend Solly. He and Eli are former workers on the Underground Railway. Ester claims to be 285 years old – dating back to the time of her arrival from Africa and sale into slavery. Her house is where Blacks come to be “washed” – a hypnotic journey led by Aunt Ester on an imaginary boat called the Gem of the Ocean, to the Isle of Bones (the remains of dead slaves), and back.

There is a young Black, Citizen Burton, recently moved from Alabama, who comes to Aunt Ester to be washed and made whole after losing his moral compass. From this, the plot of deception, death, murder, and eventually salvation derives. Going through the story arc is not relevant for these comments. What is important is Wilson’s depiction of the need for younger Blacks to learn the soullessness of slavery—to take the journey with Aunt Ester and former slaves. This provides the moral compass in their development so they understand and embrace the crusade for freedom.

Wilson makes clear, freedom is not just the abolition of slavery. Blacks are still enslaved by poverty, lack of education, Jim Crow laws in the South, blatant and subtle discrimination in the North.

For me, the play was slow and droning. The actors were excellent. The set was evocative of place and time. But August Wilson did his job. I learned about a time never considered in my history books where a young Black 20th-century citizen came to understand how he was enslaved by the past, and what he could potentially do about the present and the future. Wisely, Wilson does not comment on the success of these endeavors – that is revealed in the chronology of the other plays. Wilson died in 2005.

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For those interested, here are Wilson’s plays in the Pittsburgh Century Cycle in chronological order with a brief synopsis. Courtesy of breakingcharacter.com. I’ve seen five of them.

Gem of the Ocean, 1900’s (US/UK) Written in 1993

Though written second-to-last in 2003, Gem of the Ocean kicks off the Century Cycle in the year 1904. It begins on the eve of Aunt Ester's 285th birthday. When Citizen Barlow comes to her Hill District home seeking asylum, she sets him off on a spiritual journey to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Broadway run of Gem of the Ocean starred Phylicia Rashad and earned five Tony Award nominations, including Best Play.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, 1910’s (US/UK) Written in 1984

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is set in a Pittsburgh all-Black boarding house in 1911. The play explores the lives of each denizen of the boarding house, who all have different relationships to the legacy of slavery and to the urban present. They include the proprietors, an eccentric clairvoyant with a penchant for old country voodoo, a young homeboy up from the South, and a mysterious stranger who is searching for his wife.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, 1920’s (US/UK) Written in 1982

This cornerstone play — recently adapted in to a Netflix film starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman — was the first penned play of the Cycle, honoring the life of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, the “Mother of Blues.” The year is 1927 and Ma Rainey is recording new sides of old favorite songs in a rundown studio in Chicago. Fiery and determined, Ma Rainey fights to retain control over her music while her cocky trumpet player, Levee, dreams of making his own name in the business. More than music goes down in this riveting portrayal of rage, racism, self-hatred, and exploitation.

The Piano Lesson, 1930’s (US/UK) Written in 1986

It is 1936, and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down-home, but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for generations, but he shares ownership with his sister and it sits in her living room. She has already rejected several offers because the antique piano is covered with incredible carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated.

This touchstone work earned the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and five Tony Award nominations, including Best Play.

Seven Guitars, 1940’s (US/UK) Written in 1995

In the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948, friends gather to mourn for a blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career was on the verge of taking off. The action that follows is a flashback to the busy week leading up to Floyd's sudden and unnatural death. Part bawdy comedy, part dark elegy, and part mystery, Seven Guitars was a Finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Fences, 1950’s (US/UK) Written in 1984

This sensational drama centers around Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues who now works as a garbage man in 1957 Pittsburgh. Excluded from the major leagues during his prime for being Black, Troy has grown embittered, straining his relationships with his wife and his son, who now wants his own chance to play ball. Revived in 2010 starring Denzel Washington in the lead role, the play originally starred James Earl Jones as Troy Maxson. Fences was yet another awards darling when it first premiered, earning the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play, in 2010.

Two Trains Running, 1960’s (US/UK) Written in 1990

Memphis Lee's coffee shop is located in a Pittsburgh neighborhood on the brink of economic development. As the play unfolds, we follow the characters who hang out there: a local intellectual, an elderly man who imparts the secrets of life as learned from a 322-year-old sage, an ex-con, a numbers runner, a laconic waitress who slashed her legs to keep men away, and a developmentally disabled man who was once cheated out of a ham. With Chekhovian obliqueness, Two Trains Running reveals the simple truths, hopes, and dreams of this group, creating a microcosm of an era and a community on the brink of change. Two Trains Running earned its place as a Finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Jitney, 1970’s (US/UK) Written in 1979

During the 1970s, regular taxi cabs would not drive to the Hill District in Pittsburgh, so residents turned to unofficial and unlicensed taxi cabs called jitneys. The play follows one such company, owned by Jim Becker, on the day his son, Booster, is released from jail early after serving twenty years for the murder of his college girlfriend. When news comes in that the building the station is located in is to be condemned, the estranged father and son must learn to fight back and try to build bridges. This tender, tragic look into a turbulent time premiered in 1982, making it the first play of the Cycle that Wilson penned.

King Hedley II, 1980’s (US/UK) Written in 1991

Peddling stolen refrigerators in the feeble hope of making enough money to open a video store, King Hedley, a man whose self-worth is built on self-delusion, is scraping in the dirt of an urban backyard, trying to plant seeds where nothing will grow. Getting, spending, killing, and dying in a world where getting is hard and killing is commonplace are threads woven into this 1980's installment in the author's renowned Century Cycle. Drawing on characters established in Seven Guitars, King Hedley II shows the shadows of the past reaching into the present as King seeks retribution for a lie perpetrated by his mother regarding the identity of his father. Premiering in 1999, the play was a Finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Radio Golf, 1990’s (US/UK) Written in 1995

A fast-paced, dynamic, and wonderfully funny work about the world today and the dreams we have for the future. Set in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s, it’s the story of a successful entrepreneur who aspires to become the city’s first Black mayor. But when the past begins to catch up with him, secrets are revealed that could be his undoing. The most contemporary of all August Wilson’s work, Radio Golf is the final play in his unprecedented ten-play cycle. Completed shortly after his death in 2005, this bittersweet drama of assimilation and alienation traces the forces of change on a neighborhood and its people caught between history and the twenty-first century.

Chicago International Puppet Fest - 2022 - "Chimpanzee" Created and Directed by Nick Lehane

Welcome to the Chicago International Puppet Fest. Since all of you can’t be here in frigid Chicago, I’m going to try to describe the joy of puppetry through the shows we attended.

Immediately when I read about Chimpanzee, I knew the story. A family, whose father is a behavioral scientist, takes a baby chimp into their home and raises it as their own child. Of course, the end is a tragic failure. But it was mixed with happiness, love, and coming of age for the boy-child in the family.*

Chimpanzee opens with a void, black stage, over lit by a single white fluorescent tube. There is one character, the chimp. There are two environments—the test lab that is over lit by the florescent bulb and the home that is lit below with warm incandescent light. It’s clear that the chimp is confined in the lab. He appears to dream of the home, long for the home, and remember being free. That’s the one-hour story.

There are three puppeteers— Rowan Magee, Andy Manjuck, and Enna Wiseman. The chimp has 12 articulations. There is no script—only a deft soundtrack of noises that propels the action. Stunning. Heart-breaking.

This short YouTube video says it all.

* It’s likely I read the book, Half Brother a novel by Kenneth Oppel about such experiments in the 70s.

photos by Richard Termine

"The Elixir of Love" by Gaetano Donizetti - Review - Joy in the Dress Circle

My friend Betsy and I took advantage of the Chicago Lyric Opera’s special promotion to lure fans back to the theater—three performances, good-enough seats at a great price. Our first opera was Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece The Elixir of Love. Perhaps my favorite opera; from start to finish the music is joyous, with lots of opportunities for performers to display their vocal talents and humorous acting chops.

Adina and Dulcamara with the elixir

Bel canto (beautiful singing) reached its apotheosis in early 19th century Italy in the operas of Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini. But it began in the 18th-century works of Handel and then Mozart. For these two composers, it was used to vary to the repetition of lyrics that often make their operas lugubrious. And, though they wrote in Italian, these are German composers. The Italians seized the art form and ran with it. More technical information and a short video on bel canto opera are at the end of this post.

Free spirited Adina

Adina and Nemorino in love forever

Like most operas, the plot is little more than an excuse to write beautiful music. The fake “elixir” is Bordeaux wine; the heroine Adina, herself a successful businesswoman who owns the local hotel and cafe, accepts the marriage proposal of a handsome visiting army captain Belcore. Nemorino, a waiter at the cafe pines with love for Adina and joins the army so he can use the enlistment bonus to purchase the love potion sold by charlatan, Dulcamara. Three major male roles: baritone Belcore, sung by Joshua Hopkins, base-baritone Dulcamara, sung by Kyle Ketelsen, and tenor Nemorino, sung by Charles Castronovo. Add one amazing soprano; Adina, sung by Ailyn Pérez. These four, with conductor Enrique Mazzola and the Lyric Opera Chorus, wove magical music. It was a delightful afternoon.

For more information on how the conductor of the Lyric, Enrique Mazzola, and the singers work together in a bel canto performance, here’s Chris Jones’s review from the Chicago Tribune.

Short video preview of the Washington National Opera production of The Elixir of Love.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, Italian bel canto operas are characterized by:

• prosodic singing - the musical phrase matches the grammatic phrase

• matching register and tonal quality of the voice to the emotional content of the words

• a highly articulated manner of phrasing based on the insertion of grammatical and rhetorical pauses

• a delivery varied by several types of legato and staccato (this is one of my favorite aspects of The Elixer of Love. Throughout, there are sequences where the vocal lead is singing melodically and the second voice is simultaneously staccato, as though whispering into the ear. Think Eminem and Rhianna.

• a liberal application of more than one type of portamento (increasing or decreasing the pitch from one syllable to the next without releasing - and using speed and vibrato)

• messa di voce as the principal source of expression (increasing the volume of the note without changing it in any other way)

• frequent alteration of tempo through rhythmic rubato - the quickening and slowing of the tempo, usually at the discretion of the singer or the conductor

• the introduction of a wide variety of graces and divisions into both arias and recitatives (This is where the performers add their interpretations to the scored music. Sometimes the composer writes the first note of the phrase and the endnote. The conductor and the singer agree on path between.)

• gesture as a powerful tool for enhancing the effect of the vocal delivery

• vibrato primarily reserved for heightening the expression of certain words and for gracing longer notes.

American Mariachi Co-produced by Goodman Theatre and The Dallas Theater Center - Theatre Review - Viva Mariachi!

Ed and I spent 19 years in Tucson and managed to escape most mariachi performances.  You know, the tinny, chicken-scratch music performed by men in sombreros and black suits with copious sliver buttons – the Mexican version of cockney pearlies.  Last week, I paid to hear that same music in Chicago.

American Mariachi at the Goodman Theater—part of Destinos: 4th Chicago Internation Latino Theater Festival—is a wisp of a play: the plot is predictable, the music is predictable, and the performances caricatures.  That does not make it all bad.  It was good to sit in a theater, albeit 1/3 full.  It was good to hear the familiar music – though the plot development requires some awful playing.  It was good to see performers and theater staff making a living doing a “thing” we love.

My most important takeaway from American Mariachi is the ethnographic/historical understory of the plot.  The play is billed as taking a stand against stereotypes; mariachi is all about men.  When women wanted to perform, all hell broke loose because mariachi is passed from father to son—the songs, the instruments, the costumes.  Sons learn by listening to fathers, uncles, and brothers—there were no charts.  That may still be the way it is in some families today.  But, thanks to the Tucson International Mariachi Conference and a similar conference in San Antonio, mariachi has become a quintessential Mexican-American tradition.  Student groups are promoted heavily in junior and high schools throughout the southwest and in predominantly Mexican-American schools everywhere.  Women wear the traditional costume, but with a long black skirt, resplendent with silver buttons down the sides.   

U.S. public schools have traditionally taught “white” culture.  E.g., George Washington and the Founding Fathers are heroes of independence.  Perhaps no mention of their stands pro or anti-slavery.  Civics teaches how the government is organized, but may not study the history of voting rights.  Immigration means we are a nation of immigrants, not the rights of Native Americans or the status of immigrants of color. 

I hope that much of this has changed, but you likely can’t count on classroom teaching to provide cultural context for all students.  Enter such curricula as MAS (Mexican-American Studies) and Mariachi after curricular groups. These programs build self-esteem and provide supportive environments for Mexican-American students.  Viva Mariachi!

OVID.tv Presents "FAITH LOVE DESIRE: WORLD RELIGION AND SEXUALITY" Review – Women Be Warned

Click here to enjoy my review on PictureThisPost.com of the documentary “Faith Love Desire: World Religion and Sexuality.”

Since we can’t be out reviewing theater, we are reviewing television. This is an interesting documentary illustrating how women are so feared and repressed by religion.

Cabinet of Curiosity Presents THE FAREWELL FABLES: SATELLITES, SONGS AND CEREAL Review – The Gods Are Disappointed with Us

Please enjoy my review from PictureThisPost.com. The photos tell the stories.