Reviewed
by Will Stackman
This new
adaptation of Franz Kafka's
early unfinished novel by the ART's associate artistic director, Gideon
Lester, which runs almost three
hours with intermission, may be the first attempt in English to recreate the
whole work onstage. However, versions of "Amerika" have been seen on collegiate stages, such
as San Francisco State back when New Directions added the book to the radical
canon in the '70s. The work's been done as an opera in Finland, had Austrian,
French-Canadienne, German, Israeli, Japanese and Polish adaptations, and was
Richard Schechner's East Coast Artists second major project in the '90s.
Lester's "Amerika or the Disappearance" clearly reflects the
novelist's early sense of the cinematic and is suited to Tony-awarded Theatre
de la Jeune Lune's style of physical theatre. Director Dominique Serrand, cofounder of that group, did a somewhat
controversial production of Moliere's "The Miser" with the ART last
spring, and core members of his company appear here again.
Both Lester,
born and raised in England, and Serrand, from France, have lived and worked in
the United States for a number of years. This production may reflect their own
first perceptions of the country as well as young Kafka's Prague-bound
worldview while dreaming of his family's lost connections in New York. The
result in any case is an interesting pastiche of turn of the century fantasy
about the land of opportunity interpreted via current Continental-influenced
theatre practice. But the final effect falls a bit flat, perhaps because the
author never finished this work, an outgrowth of a short story, "The
Stoker," about justice for a working man. The production ends groping for
whatever epiphany Kafka might have had in mind as Karl Rossman, played by TJL's
Nathan Keepers ascends via
video into the distance towards the Great Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, whatever
that marvelous circus was intended to be.
The show
begins abruptly with Keepers and Sarah Agnew, both members of TJL seen last spring in the
ART/TJL production of "The Miser" entering down an aisle, clambering
onto a stage littered with a constructivist set, and beginning the show's
narration. Agnew, playing Fanny, shadows Karl unseen throughout the show,
providing narration mostly about his mental state, a curious blend of silent
movie subtitles and conscience. Her part is inconsistently written, fading from
the scene somewhat inexplicably now and then. Agnew does however maintain an
interesting focal point for the action. The first scene, as Karl tries to find
his way off the boat in New York features TJL stalwart, Steven Epp, as the Stoker, the first of his three parts.
This scene ends inconclusively when ART's Will LeBow in the first of his three parts as Uncle Jacob, a
shipping magnate, comes to rescue his young nephew. Epps and Lebow were the
major antagonists in "The Miser." Karl incidentally has been exiled
to America because their housemaid seduced him and got pregnant, apparently
looking to advance her station. Several themes of the piece are rather
obscurely presented, true to the novel, but not especially dramatic despite the
cast's best efforts. The young man is in search of so much, a new home, a
father figure, love, meaning, etc. that Keepers can only blunder ahead as a sad
sack comic, without much chance to develop a character.
The action
then proceeds to suggestions of Amerikan wealth and business intrigue as Uncle
Jacob's friend and business rival, Pollunder, played by ART's Thomas Derrah in the first of his two main parts, whisks Karl
away from exciting New York to his country estate. Kafka's family had had
chancy business dealings over here which contribute to the fantasy. In the
country, Karl meets the ART's Remo Airaldi in the first of his two main parts as Green, a soup-slurping Western
businessman. There's also Klara, Pollunder's vampish daughter played by
ART/MXAT student Deborah Knox,
who also had a lead in the company;s season opener, "The Provok'd
Wife." This sequence, which features video backgrounds of the mansion,
including cast members at times, culminates in a gratuitous nude scene and
Karl's being disowned by his uncle, in a letter, delivered by Green. It's time,
apparently, for our hero to discover the real world.
Aimlessly
wandering at night, having been provided by Green with the suitcase and
umbrella he had misplaced on the boat, Karl finds refuge in a trailer dragged
onstage by LeBow as the Innkeeperess. This moment is a brief parody of
"Mother Courage" done by the ART several seasons ago and got
appreciative chuckles from regulars in the audience. He soon discovers he has
roommates, two dodgey workmen played by Derrah and Epps. Epps plays the
villainous Delemarche, a Frenchman; Derrah, Robinson, a drunken Irishman. The
pair dog Karl until the end of the play. After increasingly difficult travels,
he escapes their clutches for a while after the intermission when he finds a
position as an elevator boy at the Hotel Occidental, somewhere in the MidWest.
His
misadventures there involve Steven Epps as the Head Cook, who reminds him of
his mother, LeBow as the Head Waiter, his irascible boss, Airaldi as the
Spanish-muttering Head Porter, and Therese, played by ART/MXAT grad, Katori
Hall, a young black maid with
whom he has a fling. His life there comes crashing down when Robinson shows up
drunk and is beaten up in boy's dorm by Karl's coworkers. Taking the injured
drunk home, our hero winds up back in the hands of Delamarche, who rescues him
from a passing policeman--by shooting the cop. The two rascals are now serving
Brunelda, an immense woman, played by BosCon MFA opera singer Christine
Teeters, who lives in what looks
like a small boxcar. Karl's enlisted to help bathe this enormous woman and
escapes only after the student who lives next door murders Delamarche and
submerges him in Brunelda's bathe. The latter character, played by ART/MXAT
student Jorge Rubio, who's
been seen earlier as an English teacher and a fellow elevator boy , is simply a
deus ex machina shadowed inexplicably by Fanny and a nameless whore. After
Brunelda sings "The Star Spangled Banner" in German--from her rolling
bath--Karl gets an audition and transportation off to the Great Nature Theatre
of Oklahoma. A rather free-form finale brings the whole cast back on in various
guises, including ART senior actor Jeremy Geidt, who's been wandering through the play from
household to household as the Ancient Servant, carrying a lantern. Fanny
incidentally winds up with angel wings as part of the choir, a echo of both the
original fantasy and perhaps Kuschner's play.
There's a
year's worth of thought and effort in planning this production, but given
Theatre de la Jeune Lune's approach, this company, full of seasoned actors,
probably needs as much studio time to make the whole thing come together. At
present "Amerika or the Disappearance" seems more like a graphic
novel or a storyboard for a film. It's not surprising that the most effective
reinterpretations of Kafka's work have been in the cinema. This current stage
piece won't be the last such attempt in the theatre, of course. Kafka sells.
The next ART/TJL joint effort, like "The Miser", revival of a
production done in Minneapolis, opens the next season in the Loeb with a
version of Bizet's "Carmen" scored for two grand pianos and sung in
French with surtitles. Perhaps semi-grand opera based on a racey novel is the
right material for TJL.