Think back a moment. Think of the last couple of years, and how much less money you have today than you did in 2008. Remember collapsing home values. Foreclosures in your neighborhood. People begging on the streets, maybe in your neighborhood.
Think about it being 10 times worse.
Then go to the New Jewish Theatre for its new production of "Awake and Sing," which opened last night at the Jewish Community Center. Clifford Odets' paean to pain, his 1936 drama about a Bronx family cracking at the seams after five years of the Great Depression. It's strong stuff. Really strong stuff, with the Rep's Steve Woolf directing and a fine cast, led by Bobby Miller in one of his best-ever performances. It isn't fun, but it's thought-provoking.
Miller, almost unrecognizable under white hair, an unkempt beard and posture that makes him appear 30 years older than he is, is Jacob, a toppling patriarch who listens to Enrico Caruso records and waits for Karl Marx and a revolution to save him. But he does nothing and, late in the action, when his grandson asks him why, he pauses a moment, seems to almost fall into a reverie, then says, "I had golden opportunities," pauses, then adds, "But I drank a glass tea."
We're 75 years later, but the tea remains in front of us.
The Bronx apartment, designed by Scott C. Neale as if he had peeked over my childish shoulder to look at my grandmother's apartment in Brooklyn, is overcrowded by the Bergers, some of whom make almost $20 a week. Jacob's daughter, Bessie (Elizabeth Ann Townsend) and her husband, Myron (Gary Wayne Barker); their son, Ralph (Aaron Orion Baker) and their daughter, Hennie (Julie Layton). Bessie's brother, Morty (Jerry Vogel) comes to call and to share a scheme or two, and a World War I vet, Moe (Jason Cannon) hangs out there to play pinochle with Jacob and flirt almost angrily with Hennie. Terry Meddows appeared briefly, but brightly, as Schlosser, the building's "super," and Jordan Reinwald is gentle and effective in a small but important role.
This play is a great example of classic American writing, American Realism at its best. Odets prose is strong, his dialog as ringing as a hammer forging an iron bar. He was the angry voice of class struggle, and a Communist during the time that the US and the USSR were allies in the battle against Nazi Germany. "Waiting for Lefty," his first play, was a siren song to political action, but "Awake and Sing" is a stronger, more polished drama.
I had trouble in the early going, primarily with Barker, one of the best St. Louis actors, and Townsend, whom I've never seen on a stage before. Both seemed ill at ease in their roles, with strange accents. Barker's body language was not convincing, and Townsend looked too fresh and sprightly for someone who was fiercely angry, in addition to feeling badly abused, at least in her own head.
However, things got into a proper rhythm and both were offering far more impressive performances as the evening progressed. Barker slowed his speech and his action, changed his timing a little and began to show a greater impact. Townsend, a key figure throughout, took the spotlight more slowly, became part of the group, let her speeches, and not some sudden gestures, show how important she was. Of course, she's responsible for what may be the play's most horrible moment, but she's off stage for that one.
Baker, buffeted by frustration and the fact that he's never had a life, can't find a girl and never even had a birthday party shows his pain very well. Layton, who plays fragile in exceptional style, obviously has made poor judgments and bad decisions, but allows herself to be trapped by a mother who stops at nothing to make things work the way she wants. Vogel excels as a sleazy businessman, generous to his family but quick to join the chase for a buck through any territory. Cannon is another winner, his underplaying and his attitude stand out in a cast that occasionally goes over the top. It's a fine, balanced performance.
Woolf really got his teeth into this play; it had the appearance of something he's wanted to do for a long while, and it shows power from start to finish; its balance slipped here and there, but as the run progresses, it should be a great production.
For those interested in theatrical genealogy and history, the original 1936 play, directed by Harold Clurman, had John Garfield (then named Jules) as Ralph, Morris Carnovsky as Jacob, Stella Adler as Bessie, her brother Luther as Moe Axelrod and Sanford Meisner as Sam. The title is from Isiah 26:19, "Awake and Sing, ye that dwell in the dust."
Awake and Sing, a production of the New Jewish Theatre, will run at the Jewish Community Centers through May 8
—Joe