[NEohioPAL] Review of convergence-continuum's "The Internationalist"

[Bob Abelman]

'The Internationalist' turns ambiguity into an art

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 12/2/11

 

Theater comes in many forms, each with the intention of making an audience feel something specific.  Theatre of the Absurd, grounded in the irrationality of life, leaves its audience with an overbearing sense of futility.  Expressionism creates angst.  Avant-gardism generates shock. 

Anne Washburn's comedy The Internationalist, receiving its Cleveland premiere at convergence-continuum, leaves its audience dazed and confused.   

 

Call it the Theatre of the Enigmatic, where the play is unintelligible and is so intentionally.    Therein lays The Internationalist's peculiar charm and, unfortunately, its primary failing.

 

The Internationalist reveals the world through the jet-lagged, blood-shot eyes of an American businessman, Lowell (Tom Kondilas), who arrives in a foreign land after an interminable international flight.  Sleep-deprived, fuzzy-headed and thick-tongued, Lowell-and by extension we-are immediately thrown off-balance by a Slavic-sounding language we do not speak, befuddled by bizarre native customs we do not understand, and disoriented by the awkward and unpredictable behavior of the people with whom our hero has come to do business. 

 

The play's bewildering Alice in Wonderland overtone is established from the get-go, upon Lowell's deplaning and his initial encounter with Sara (Laurel Hoffman).  In the opening moments, he-and we-assume she is the limo driver, then a prostitute and then a professional colleague before discovering that she is a lowly office assistant.  The confusion and miscommunication intensifies upon Lowell's arrival at the office.  

 

Lowell's distrusting foreign colleagues (Geoffrey Hoffman, Laura Starnik, Ray Caspio, and Robert Hawkes) speak broken English laden with misunderstanding, saying things that sound profound but are in fact perplexing.  The office is shrouded in nonspecific political intrigue left unexplained, erupts into petty rivalries without clear provocation, and exists in a state of mystery.  Nothing about these people seems normal.  Nothing about their enterprise makes sense. 

 

Simultaneously provocative and pointless, The Internationalist is also very funny.  Yet, the laughs that are elicited lack confidence, for what at first seems hilarious quickly turns into something sinister or simply vanishes.  Similarly, the playwright makes allusions to American ethnocentrism and is on the verge of offering commentary on big business, but all this fades as quickly as it takes form.  

 

This ambiguity and absurdity is very entertaining, largely because it is delivered with very serious intent and predominantly through a contrived language by a superb cast.  These six players, directed with great attention to detail by Clyde Simon, are an absolute pleasure to watch, particularly though the filter of Lowell's mind-numbing fatigue.  

 

Over time, however, the play and its charming sense of disorientation become frustrating and tiresome.   One of the characters notes that "people are always more appealing when they're unintelligible."  Yes, to a point, and in this play that point is reached very early in the second act. 

 

As the final, inexplicable scene plays out, it is clear that The Internationalist is a highly aerobic exercise in futility.  And, as with all forms of exercise, this play leaves you light-headed, exhausted and gasping for air.  

 

The Internationalist continues through December 17 at convergence-continuum's Liminis Theatre in historic Tremont.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $15, call 216-687-0074 or visit www.convergence-continuum.org.
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