[NEohioPAL] Review of "Antebellum" at Cleveland Public Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

CPT's 'Antebellum,' a brilliant concept that is gone with the wind

 

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 Times papers on 3/01/12

 

Early in Robert O'Hara's "Antebellum," a southern belle attempts to explain the epic novel she is reading.  She fails miserably.  Unable to adequately relay all the romance, Civil War upheaval, and assorted side-stories packed into the pages of "Gone with the Wind," she is also oblivious to the social injustices that existed during the confederate South's antebellum era. 

 

The play itself, currently being staged by Cleveland Public Theatre, also defies simple description but places the theme of social injustice on the front burner. 

 

"Antebellum" takes place in Atlanta in 1939 with the city's world premiere of the film "Gone with the Wind" as its backdrop.  Sarah and Ariel Roca, a young Jewish couple with long-established roots in the South, prepare themselves for the evening's festivities by dressing in the period costuming reflected in the film.  They are as indifferent to the antebellum ties of their wardrobe as they are to the Jim Crowe laws of their time.

 

"Antebellum" also takes place in Berlin in 1936, as the fledgling Nazi movement gathers momentum.  Here we meet Oksar von Schleicher, a commandant of the Third Reich, whose favorite prisoner-a gay black cabaret singer named Gabriel-is used for scientific experimentation as well as the satisfaction of the commandant's needs and desires.

 

The play bridges these parallel worlds and their respective forms of discrimination and inhumanity by offering an intriguing pretense.  With seamless ease, thanks to Beth Wood's astute direction, the Roca's historic plantation house becomes the study of Oksar's detention center and back again, as characters from both timelines ebb and flow in and out of existence.  Gabriel becomes the link that not only connects these two worlds but, as the play progresses, is the conduit for these worlds converging.  No, colliding.  This is good stuff.

 

Another intriguing pretence, but one not nearly as successful, is that "Gone with the Wind" is more than mere window-dressing for this play.  

 

The playwright embraces the old southern sing-song speak and flowery verbiage of the film's characters to inform the style of presentation and language of his own. This allows Sarah (played magnificently and, with the aid of Melanie Boeman's costuming, with great humor by Laurel Hoffman) to resemble Scarlett O'Hara in both form and phrasing.  It gives Ariel (played brilliantly by Mark Rabant) Rhett Butler's silver tongue and, when called for, Ashley Wilkes' self-deprecating tone.  

 

Unfortunately, the playwright does not have at his disposal Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning words, Victor Fleming's Academy Award winning eye for editing, or David O' Selznick's access to Cinemascope.  What is accomplished in one sentence on film-a "fiddle-de-dee" or an "I don't give a damn"-takes him volumes to accomplish in this play.  The clever dialogue that starts the play metastasizes into lengthy monologues as the two worlds merge into one and discrimination and genocide become the focus of attention.  The play runs 2 ½ hours as a result.   

 

These weighty, emotion-laden monologues prolong the play's dramatic tension and test the audience's endurance.  A further test is being able to hear these monologues, since the cavernous Gordon Square Theatre sucks sound away from earshot and the staging of the play-stadium seating on both sides of a narrow piece of flooring representing the plantation house/detention center -keeps actors with their sides or backs toward the audience throughout the production. 

 

By addressing weighty issues head-on, the characters in this play-who, at their core, are as simply drawn as those from "Gone with the Wind"-have added layers of complexity and emotional baggage.  Dana Hart, as Oskar, and Nicholas Sweeney, as Gabriel, manufacture fascinating, believable characters and deliver absolutely riveting performances.  Audrey Lovy, who's Edna Black Rock has more than her share of complexity and baggage, does not.

 

The play concludes as if the playwright painted himself into a corner with no reasonable way out.  CPT's overly dramatic presentation of this reinforces the impression that "Antebellum" is based on a brilliant concept that is sustained for most of the evening but, in the end, is gone with the wind.  

 

"Antebellum" continues through March 10 at Cleveland Public Theatre's Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $25, call 216-631-2727 or visit www.cptonline.org.
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