Through the use of witchcraft, Center Theatre Group has brought the original Broadway cast of God of Carnageto the Ahmanson for a very limited time. What does that mean exactly? That means that for the next month or so, you have the opportunity to see James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis put each other through the most entertaining kind of hell imaginable on-stage, eight times a week for your entertainment. All you have to do is get off your ass, buy a ticket and laugh your ass off. It’s almost not fair. You should bring them cookies.
The play is based on a simple premise-one set of parents (Gandolfini, Harden) invites another (Davis, Daniels) over to their stylish Brooklyn apartment to discuss an incident which took place at a local park in which Davis & Daniels’ 11 year old son struck the Gandolfini/Harden boy (also 11) with a stick. The tone, at first, is painfully civil. Amidst the coffee-table books and tulips, the couples munch clafoutis and discuss the best way to address this most un-Brooklyn-like (that’s gentrified Brooklyn, mind you) burst of savagery and violence. Of course, while polite behavior may make for a delightful Passover Seder, it makes for pretty dull theatre, so, pretty soon, the veneer of courtesy is ripped off, the booze comes out and everyone loses their shit in magnificent fashion. Particularly good is Daniels, who begins as the most obnoxious of the lot and eventually is revealed as possibly the most sane. Certainly, he is the most in touch with the larger brutality of the world beyond Brooklyn and the most self-aware. The other actors have flamboyant and wonderful outbursts, but he is the axis around which the madness spins and, as a result, the most subtly compelling of the bunch.
This is not the first play to expose the childish, petty brutality that lies just beneath the blond-wood veneer of polite society but it is a fine specimen of the breed. It is nothing more and nothing less than a beautifully written and exceptionally performed play. If you think you like theatre- go see it. If you don’t think you like theatre- definitely go see it. It will change your mind. -Eric Sims
In a season that had to make concessions to the changing economy, the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum has announced a 2010 lineup that includes David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow," directed by Neil Pepe, Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," Rajiv Joseph's "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" and Judith Ivey in the Long Wharf Theatre production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie."
The season, announced today by Michael Ritchie -- artistic director of CTG, which oversees the Taper, the Ahmanson Theatre and Culver City's Kirk Douglas Theatre -- also includes the touring production of Broadway's "Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps" and the world premiere of a musical which CTG describes as featuring "the work of one of America's greatest living singer/songwriters," with title and details to be announced soon.
The new season opens Feb. 21 with "Speed-the-Plow" and runs through Dec. 19 but leaves empty most of the month of June. In an interview Thursday, Ritchie said that leaving one month open for programming that will be scheduled later is an effort on the part of CTG to take advantage of the fact that more and more theatergoers seem to be forgoing the subscription model and making their ticket-buying decisions at the last minute.
“We’re being somewhat opportunistic there,” Ritchie said. “As you’ve seen at the Douglas for the last couple of years, we’ve done that and filled our time well … we’re trying to break out of a rigid model of producing with the hopes that we may be able to expand that to the Taper and, potentially, the Ahmanson, although it gets more complicated the larger the theater gets.”
“Bengal Tiger,” set in Iraq, had its world premiere at the KirkDouglasTheatre in May and was a hit with critics and audiences (read Charles McNulty's review). Moises Kaufman will direct, and Ritchie said the Taper hopes to utilize as much of the original cast as possible. “Bengal Tiger” is not being announced as a pre-Broadway production but Ritchie said “we would certainly like to see it move further than the Taper.”
Casting has not been announced for Mamet’s Hollywood satire “Speed-the-Plow,” but it will be directed by Pepe, who directed the 2008 Broadway revival of the 1988 play, and Ritchie said that the Taper is seeking to employ the same designers and as much of the Broadway cast as possible. “Yes, you could say it is a re-creation of the Broadway production,” he said.
Ritchie said the weak economy that has existed during the Taper’s ongoing season has affected the programming choices made for this season; “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” was postponed from the ongoing season to the upcoming one. CTG also dropped a show from its KirkDouglasTheatre schedule, “Heddatron,” and cut its overall administrative costs during the ongoing season.
"The economy definitely affected this particular season; it forced a show from last year into this season," Ritchie said. "However, in this [2010] season we have some large-scale shows, 'Inishmore' and a new musical, and we believe we weathered the worst of the economic crisis by being extremely proactive, cutting back on our administrative costs and offering our 100,000 tickets at $20 to spur audiences to get in the doors, and we managed our expenses very well."
On a positive note, Ritchie said that the most recent round of Ahmanson season subscription renewals set a record this year and added: “A hit is a hit in any economy,” he said. “The onus is on us to produce the shows that people want to see.”
The Taper season:
Feb. 21-March 21: “Speed-the-Plow” April 25-May 30: “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” April 28-May 16: “Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps” June 30-Aug. 8: “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” Sept. 12-Oct.17, 2010: “The Glass Menagerie” Nov.21-Dec. 19: A world premiere musical (details to be announced)
Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles
star in David Mamet's 'Oleanna'
I was in graduate school when David Mamet's "Oleanna" premiered in 1994, and it was one of those plays that had everyone talking: who's 'right'? The arrogant male professor, or his naive, self-righteous female student? At the time, you'll recall that 'Political Correctness' and 'Sexual Harassment' had yet to become things anyone with a shred of sensitivity could comfortably joke about. If they've more or less evolved into punchline material now 15 years on, it's because we appear to have learned the lessons of the era--about being a little more aware of the words we choose, the jokes we tell, and the way we touch and look at others--pretty thoroughly: just ask Don Imus and Michael Richards.
"Oleanna" is, in a sense, Mamet's early-90's, dystopian vision of where the 'political correctness' movement was taking us: John, a professor on the verge of tenure (Bill Pullman) meets in his office with Carol, a female student who's having trouble in his class (Julia Stiles). She complains that she doesn't understand his teaching and worries that she will flunk his class. Fearing that his work and lectures are becoming inaccessible, he offers to help her in one-on-one sessions. In the course of explaining some of his ideas, he references a study of sexual behavior, utters the words "I like you," and at one point, seeing she is upset, attempt to put his arm around her.
These fleeting moments take on a "Rashomon"-like quality in the play's second and third acts: she levels charges of sexual harassment against him, which puts his pending tenure confirmation and home purchase in jeopardy. Hilarity doesn't exactly ensue (far from it), but mayhem of various kinds certainly does.
I saw a production of "Oleanna" back in the '90's, directed by Mamet himself, and while I remember thinking that both characters were reprehensible, I also remembered that their clash was pretty balanced. Carol made some good points: John WAS pedantic. His actions could be construed as smarmy. He did appear to be trying to bribing her with a high grade in exchange for, if not sex, certainly a few hours of her undivided attention. At the same time, Carol's charges were blown out of all proportion, and her naivete drove her to vengeful extremes.
Now, fifteen years on, and eighteen after the Anita Hill hearings, the current production feels a bit like a period piece: when the big accusations fly (she equates his offer of help and subtle physical overtures with rape), we feel like we've heard it all before, found a point of compromise, and moved on. The opening night audience was clearly not in Carol's corner: there was audible, and contemptuous laughter at some of her grander proclamations, and when Pullman finally tells her to "Get the fuck out of my office," there was scattered applause.
The characterizations skew the play further in John's favor: Pullman is a skilled actor, and a master of Mamet's stylized language. For once all the ellipses and half-thoughts make sense: John is already feeling the walls closing in from the opening moments, fielding call after desperate call from his wife and real estate agent, and can barely finish a thought. Always likable on film, his warmth is even more palpable in person: throughout, we can feel his natural desire to do right by everyone--the hectoring voices on the phone, the administration, his students, Carol herself--even as he stumbles, badly and irrevocably, in the process.
Stiles, however, seems slightly miscast: despite having played the role once before, she seems too poised, too together, altogether too confident to seem legitimately threatened by Pullman (Aaron Eckhart, a significantly more imposing, and more naturally-devious actor than Pullman, played John opposite Stiles in the previous production: could that have been a better matchup?). Carol's counterattack on John in the second act, then, feels almost arbitrary.
By the end, this Carol seemed coldly calculating--almost an Iago figure--rather than a vulnerable woman finding a legitimate voice with which to fight back against her oppressor. The character makes repeated references to a life of hard knocks and economic hardship, but on the night, with her clear skin, flowing blond locks, and trendy outfits, Stiles came across more as the product of privilege and a good health insurance plan.
It's possible that this slightly sinister take on Carol may be a bold choice by Stiles, and by the director, Doug Hughes, as if they are daring their Los Angeles audience of deep-blue, artistic types to cheer for the straight, white guy in power, despise the articulate champion of feminism who takes him down, and then feel guilty for it afterwards. If that's the case, it doesn't quite work: lacking much motivation or vulnerability, Carol, already a tough role, becomes almost inhuman in this formulation, and the character's seams as a theatrical contrivance start to show. It then becomes too easy to write her off, side with John, and reduce "Oleanna"--unfairly, I think--to a cautionary tale about the dangers of opportunistic young women who game the Sexual Harassment system.
Nevertheless, it's an engaging, at times lacerating evening, and the crushing climax, which in the '90's production felt to me like clunky playwriting, is now genuinely horrific, thanks mostly to Pullman's finely-modulated descent into despair. It's clear that Mamet had an ax to grind with this play; he's got a beef with academia; a beef with classism and sexism, and perhaps most obviously, a beef with the dehumanizing, muzzling effect of Political Correctness. He seems to have written "Oleanna" to warn us of the monsters he believed we were on the verge of becoming some fifteen years back. We haven't yet, thank God, and, dated though it may seem, we may in part have "Oleanna" to thank for that.
- Andrew Heffernan
Theater Review - 
