A.R.T. Dusts Off Clifford Odets' 'Paradise Lost'

Paradise Lost

Written by Clifford Odets, Directed by Daniel Fish, Scenic Design by Andrew Lieberman, Costume Design by Kaye Voyce, Lighting Design by Scott Zielinksi, Sound Design by Clive Goodwin, Video Design by Joshua Thorson, Stage Manager Katherine Shea, Voice and Speech by Nancy Houfek, Dramaturgy by Whitney Eggers

CAST: David Chandler, Leo Gordon; Sally Wingert, Clara Gordon; Hale Appleman, Ben Gordon; T. Ryder Smith, Julie Gordon, Mr.May; Therese Plaehn, Pearl Gordon; Thomas Derrah, Gus Michaels; Merritt Janson, Libby Michaels; Jonathan Epstein, Sam Katz; Adrianne Krstansky, Bertha Katz; Karl Bury, Kewpie; Michael Rudko, Mr. Pike; Cameron Oro, Felix; Remo Airaldi, Phil Foley; Anthony Gaskins, Newspaper Man

Performances through March 20 @ Loeb Drama Center, American Repertory Theater           Box Office 617-547-8300 or www.americanrepertorytheater.org

The American Repertory Theater presents Clifford Odets' drama Paradise Lost as the second entry in its "America: Boom, Bust, and Baseball" festival. Set during the Great Depression, the 1935 play about the struggling middle class in an unidentified American city, conveys both the hopes and despair of the Gordon family and their extended circle as they teeter on The Edge of economic catastrophe and strive to find their balance in an uncertain world. Themes of social responsibility, self-interest, trust, loss, and governmental accountability provide the play with the trademark heft and depth of Odets, one of the defining American Playwrights of the 1930s.

A director known for his innovative interpretations of classics, Daniel Fish is not new to the works of Odets and recommended Paradise Lost to Artistic Director Diane Paulus as the "bust" piece for the festival. By focusing on the human aspects of the play and making it happen now, Fish strives to overcome the challenge of freshening material that is seventy-five years old. He and his designers utilize an abstract stage construction of crisscrossed slabs and planks, a combination of harsh and dimmed lighting, and modern dress, including t-shirts bearing recent political slogans, to bring the production into the 21^st century. What you won't see are pieces of overstuffed furniture or accoutrements reflective of comfort and success. Props that are given prominence include daughter Pearl's piano keyboard, the motorcycle of family friend Gus, and a large bronze statue of son Ben, an Olympic track champion.

As a member of the avant garde Group Theatre in New York, Odets emphasized ensemble work. For today's theatergoer, it may take a little getting used to the format at the top of the show when more than a dozen people are sitting around a table having a conversation, no one character seeming more central than the next.  Eventually, their interconnectedness is made clear, dramatic arcs emerge, and their stories are cogently woven together throughout the course of three acts, but Odets' language is often more poetic and opaque than modern discourse, leading to a considerable amount of head-scratching about the meaning of some scenes. The accomplished cast contributes several worthy individual performances, but is missing the cohesion necessary for the ensemble to gel. Speeches frequently sound like soliloquies, rather than dialogue between parties, diminishing their emotional impact.

Paradise Lost tells a timeless and universal story, to be sure, but the contemporary treatment it receives at the A.R.T. didn't work for me. Fish intends to make the play vivid and spontaneous by the insertion of video, but it is a mixed bag. When business partners Gordon and Katz are speaking with disgruntled union workers represented on the screen, it gives the tension between management and labor a larger than life impact. However, when two or three actors seated onstage are talking into the camera and their close-ups are projected on the rear wall, the hoped for cinema verité effect is overshadowed by a more powerful feeling that the dramatic flow is being interrupted for artificial artistry. The director is quoted as calling the videos "another character in the play," but with a sophisticated audience, I think it takes away from their opportunity to visualize the import for themselves and stay in the moment.

David Chandler and Sally Wingert as Leo and Clara Gordon embody the central struggle of social responsibility versus self-interest, bending but not breaking under the ever-increasing burdens they must shoulder. Leo's partner Sam Katz (Jonathan Epstein) and his wife Bertha (Adrianne Krstansky) show a tragic, dissimilar response to some of the same pressures. The three Gordon children, Ben (Hale Appleman), Julie (T. Ryder Smith), and Pearl (Therese Plaehn), are ill-equipped to handle life's disappointments and each finds an unsatisfactory way out. Gus Michaels (Thomas Derrah) and his daughter Libby (Merritt Janson) make their way in the world through the generosity of others. Only Kewpie (Karl Bury) and Mr. Pike, the furnace man (Michael Rudko), seem to be the masters of their own fate, seeing the world as it is, not as they wish it to be. Perhaps that accounts for their naturalistic, at ease portrayals of these secondary characters that represent the opposing consciences of the play.

Odets may not be as well known today as such contemporaries as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller, but the 2006 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play and the 2006 Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble were won by his Awake and Sing! Nearly fifty years after his death in 1963, his message and vision still resonate and his voice deserves to be heard again. The A.R.T. is to be applauded for dusting off this drama, but the words ring truer on the page than on the Loeb stage.

 

Photo credit (A.R.T.): Therese Plaehn, Karl Bury, Sally Wingert, Adrianne Krstansky, Thomas Derrah, Jonathan Epstein, Michael Rudko

 

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