Saint Joan Of The Slaughterhouses
Rarely have I been happy with a production of Bertolt Brecht. Usually because the actors choose an overly presentational style and rarely talk to each other or attempt to establish demonstrative ties. Pacific Resident Theatre does not fall into this trap, and manages to find pathos as well as some poignancy in Brecht’s very didactic Economy101 saga; a political/financial dissertation on Capitalism and its woes encapsulated in drama.
Peter Mellencamp’s translation has an extremely natural and up to date flow. It embraces moments of both comedy and poetry as the tale unravels. Business tycoons destroy the economic system they themselves created and then bail themselves out. Sound familiar? This play, written in 1930 after the Wall Street stock market crash, could have been written today.
In act one we are introduced to two figures somewhat reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, (1909). We find the young idealistic girl preaching to the poor being forced to confront the rich and all powerful financial tycoon about to devour the entire working community. Slaughterhouse is, of course, a more serious and dense political theses than Shaw’s comedy. Although some cutting might have served well in the second act, Brecht seems intent on fully explaining our social system to us, and getting us to understand the ills of Capitalism.
I thought a bit of music might have added to the second act, but then most Bretchtian productions are drowned by music overshadowing everything else. The cast did sing acappella and that was lovely. Epic drama, social parable, and political vaudeville were all mixed together splendidly.
Foremost in the cast is Andrew Parks as the great industrialist. He is very appealing as he maintains a simple, real, and introspective rendering of his character. His performance had nuance and variety. My one suggestion is to keep up playing everything for real through the second act; maintain the multi-dimensional nature of this man as much as possible.
Dalai Vosylius is just fine as Joan Dark, one of the great parts with which so many actresses have and will want to cut their teeth and give their interpretation. I wish a surer hand had developed the possibility of ‘kindred souls’, or at least heightened the flirtation between these two major characters.
Norman Scott is delightful as the weasel like assistant Sullivan Slift. He, too, might have been a little more seductive.
The ensemble itself is marvelous. The smaller parts are doubled up with two or three characters played by one actor. The faces of these actors are, for the most part, raw and authentic. I might even say theirs was the best casting of all since their faces seemed to be of real workers, chiseled out of the granite of poverty and distress, adding depth and mystery to the production. The old lady and the old man in particular were quite wonderful.
Although we in the audience may become a little restless as the play labors to its conclusion, it is well worth are efforts to persist. I cannot claim to have followed every twist and turn of the financial shenanigans, but it all made me terribly resentful of our financial leaders today. The play ends with the heart-rending cry that a moment in history had occurred when things might have change, but now all is patched up and will continue as before until the next crisis. Wow! We are at the next crisis!
Certainly go; particularly if you like Bretch.
Pacific Resident Theatre
707 Venice Blvd.
www.PacificResidentTheatre.com
(310) 822-8392