[NEohioPAL]Berko review: A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY/CPT

[Roy Berko]

OVERSTATED BUT RELEVANT TONY KUSHNER PLAY AT CPT

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

One of the characters in Tony Kushner’s play, ‘A
BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY,’ now being staged at Cleveland
Public Theatre intones, “"Overstatement is your
friend.  Use it.”  This is Kushner's writing
device...overstating and continuing to overstate until
the message is firmly implanted in the listener’s
mind.   

Kushner, the author of the epic  ‘ANGELS IN AMERICA’
is noted for his poetic verbiage and his daunting
soliloquies.  Some viewers find him to be tedious and
preachy, others hang on every word.  No matter your
view of his writing, one must admit that he takes on
causes with directness and enthusiasm.

“A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY’ is set in the New York City
of now and Berlin of then.  As the play opens we find
Zillah Katz (Allison Hernan), a Long Island Jew who is
disenchanted with the current American political
scene, listening to television reports of the race for
the 2004 Presidency.  She is surrounded by masses of
research.  In a series of flash-forward and flashback
scenes, we see what happened in 1932 and 1933 as
Hitler came into power and Kushner’s view of how
Hitler’s actions parallel to the US political
situation.

When playwright Tony Kushner first put the words "We
are perched at the brink of a great historical crime"
in the mouth of one of his play’s characters, he was
taking his stand against what he perceived to be
international and domestic crimes committed by
Reagan-era America in the mid-1980s.  

As explained by David Templeton in a review of a
California Bay area production of the play,“Today, in
post-9-11 America, such comparisons seem ludicrously
naive; at the same time, they manage to appear
unnervingly prophetic.  As daily reports appear in our
newspapers revealing a parade of war crimes in Iraq;
as the Supreme Court considers whether the U.S.
government's state-sanctioned disappearing of its own
citizens is constitutional; as Americans passively
debate the efficacy of the Patriot Act, while
hard-fought freedoms are eradicated beneath our very
noses, the numerous social and political harms brought
about during the Reagan years seem like a mere warm-up
for what many see as the "great historical crimes" of
the Bush era.”

To make the move into the present, with the permission
of Kushner, the CPT production team has updated the
play so that it contains the same message of warning
and prediction of dire consequences if George W. Bush
is re-elected as President.  

The production qualities of the CPT staging are
generally excellent.  Trad Burns’ set thrusts itself
out like a dagger into the audience.  We are each
“stabbed” by its presence.  The fragmentation, which
harks back to the theatrical movement entitled
Alienation, makes the audience realize that we are
seeing what was, but need to be aware of what is.  The
characters speak, but they are really representing
each of us.  Theatrical devices being used include
projected titles to lead us through the maze of
disconnected scenes, and a narrator, Zillah, sitting
in a separate set installed in front of the playing
area.  Again, the disconnectedness doesn’t let the
listener sit back and let the words wash over.  The
theatricalism means to alert that the words should be
heeded.

Director Lester Thomas Shane has well staged the play,
but needed to quicken the pace.  And, since he had
Kushner’s permission to alter the script, he needed to
cut some of the extraneous characters and overly long
speeches.  The sit is very long.  He also needed to
work with the actors on projection.  Lines were lost
to the fly gallery and backstage due to the openness
of the set and characters being placed with their
backs to the audience. 

Allison Hernan is excellent as the driven Zillah,
filled with rage and angst.    Jill Levin seemed
tentative in her lines, but developed the fragility of
the play’s central character.  Randy Rollison is
totally believable as a frustrated and revenge-filled
Hungarian film maker.  Tracee Patterson finely tunes
the role of an apolitical actress who, in spite of her
fame and connections, is forced to flee the country.  
Charles F. Kartali gives an enthralling portrayal of
the devil.  His sneering and smirking is unnerving,
and whether intentional or not, makes one think of
President Bush’s facial expressions during the first
debate of this election season.

On the other side of the acting coin, Michael Seevers,
Jr. is unbelievable as Baz, a homosexual who once had
the gun and the opportunity to kill Hitler.  Bernice
Bolek never establishes a characterization as an old
ghost-like woman who appears and vanishes throughout
the production.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  Kushner’s play will incite strong
feelings depending on the viewer’s political
viewpoints.  It is very preachy, but as history
demonstrates, and this production reminds us, whenever
we find ourselves perched at the brink of great
national calamity, a bit of preaching is maybe not
only tolerable, but perhaps necessary. 

For tickets to ‘A BRIGHT ROOM  CALLED DAY, which runs
through October 30 at CPT  call 216-631-2727.


=====
Roy Berko's web page can be found at royberko.info.  His theatre and dance reviews appear on NeOHIOpal, a free on-line source, which can be subscribed to at neohiopal at lists.fredsternfeld.com.


		
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