Awake and Sing
A poet of the theatre, Clifford Odets’ hit 1935 domestic/social drama, is enjoying an outstanding production at A Noise Within, in Glendale. His first full-length play, not fully realized until it had changed its title and was workshopped by Group Theatre director Harold Clurman, it remains a metaphor-laden, realistic-dialogue family drama about the normal tensions of a family exacerbated by a failing economic system, specifically, the Great Depression (1929-1940). The contemporary comparisons are not lost on us, either.
Molded on the naturalistic theatre of Chekhov and Stanislavsky, and the Marxist/Socialist political and economic philosophies, the family Berger: Bessie, the matriarch, her timid husband, Myron, her restless daughter, Hennie and her idealistic and frustrated son, Ralph, share a large Bronx apartment with Bessie’s father, old Jacob, the mouthpiece of the leftist rhetoric that fuels the emotional conflicts. Not at all pedantic, the social and domestic problems the family faces resonate strongly today.
Director Andrew J. Traister has cast it well and guides his authentic-sounding actors through their paces, never flagging in energy or pace. ANW resident artist, Deborah Strang, is a domineering Bessie who cannot or will not take her children’s long-term needs into her manipulations. When Jacob dies, at the end of the play, her need to sustain her family allows she and her rich brother, Morty (Alan Blumenfeld) to try and cheat Ralph out of his inheritance. The entire cast shines, especially Joel Swetow as Myron, Molly Lela d as Hennie and Adam Silver as Ralph. Daniel Reichert’s Moe Axelrod is a dedicatedly slimy hustler, lean and sharp, Len Lesser is a well-honed Jacob, and David Lengel adds verisimilitude as the dull, but loving, husband of Hennie.
The realistic set by Michael C. Smith and the costume design by Julie Keen, along with the lighting design of James P. Taylor, all contribute to making the evening authentic and harrowing. Even though the play is now ancient history to some, the production is accurate to author’s intent and to the period style. A must-see for the avid theatre-goer.