The Chamber Theatre has brought Shaw's epic multi-part work, "Back To Methuselah" to Milwaukee with help from Marquette University. It might have been enough for the Chamber to have the only annual Shaw Festival in the United States. Certainly, Shaw has enough plays to keep the festival producing his plays for some time. Mounting the five substantial one-act plays that make up "Back to Methuselah" is a major effort and something of a risk, as long works often make audiences nervous.
"Back To Methuselah" -- which runs through Sun., May 6 -- is a most amusing and thought provoking work that quite fairly demonstrates Shaw's comic genius and his considerable reputation as an Irish savant. The work is being presented in two segments by the Chamber; one segment by Marquette University Department of Performing Arts; and another segment, a short presented by In Tandem.
There is one day set for the performance of all five one-acts with arrangements for lunch and supper. There are ample opportunities for audiences to attend some or all of the plays in the series over a number of days. Call the box office at (414) 291-7800 to schedule your times to enjoy this rare opportunity.
Performance A consists of "In The Beginning" and "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas." Performance B, performance C and the Shaw short will be reviewed separately.
I made a point of seeing the plays in sequence but came away convinced that the order could be shuffled with no loss in comprehension. Each play is quite complete in itself and one soon begins to recognize the characters that reappear whether in or out of sequence. Moreover, the projections setting the times and places establish when and where the action takes place.
"In the Beginning" is Shaw's take on the Garden of Eden. The date 4004 B.C. is Shaw's first wry joke as he gives us his own take on the ancient tale of creation.
Adam and Eve are as interesting as one would expect our first parents to be. However, Cain, played by David Cecsarini, in a hair-do quite like Attila the Hun, is wonderfully over the top. The conflict between the farmers and the warriors is starkly laid out and we have a sense that things are not going to go smoothly. I rather liked Shaw's take on why and how Abel provoked his brother to commit murder.
In "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas," Shaw advances to what was his contemporaneous era just after The Great War. The Brothers have a theory that everyone with sufficient will power can live to be three hundred years old. While everyone else regards this as a silly idea, Conrad swears that it will happen.
Shaw quite deliberately sets this play in a conventional English domestic setting (quite well to do, of course.) The ideas exchanged in Shaw's inimitable dialogue are quite extraordinary although some of the characters seem quite conventional. His politicians are just as fatuous as ours and just as venal. His maid is as ordinary as anyone played by the redoubtable Jane Hannemann. Drew Brhel is very funny as Joyce Burge. Richard Halverson is gorgeous in his frock coat and expounds his theory in lucid terms. David Cecsarini assumes the role of Conrad Barnabas still with elements of Cain. Mary Macdonald Kerr is quite fetching as the young Eve. Gerald Nugent seems pretty conventional as the Reverend Haslam after we've seen his Adam but he will bear watching. Ruth Schudson plays the Serpent and the Elder Eve. One suspects she could have convinced us as the young Eve at the same time without too great a strain.
Check out the talented worthies who designed the sets, the costumes, the lights and the sound. Give full marks to the stage managers since this is a huge job. Certainly Montgomery Davis has made a heroic decision when he decided to stage "Back To Methuselah" for the first time in over 25 years in the U.S. His knowledge of the work enabled him to go right to the core of this epic and bring it to the stage in a clear and exciting staging.
"Back to Methuselah," Part B
If you have any reservations about committing yourself to several hours of George Bernard Shaw, start with "Performance B -- The Thing Happens" on the Cabot Stage of the Broadway Theatre Center. You will be jumping into the middle of Shaw's magnum opus but having seen the heat of the action, part A and part C will not only be easier to follow but your appetite should be whetted for all of Methuselah that you can get.
First of all, the acting is superb and worth more than the price of admission. Paul Boesing plays President Burge-Lubin with a carefully crafted slightly ridiculous English figurehead. He is rather more animated than the other characters with the exception of David Cecsarini's Barnabas. Cecsarini's Barnabas is an officious and petulant child as opposed to Boesing who plays the president as a very amiable but immature clown. Contrasting with these two characters, Drew Brhel plays a cabinet minister called Confucius with a grave and serious mien. Gerald Nugent plays the Archbishop of York with the gravitas one would expect of someone over two hundred years old.
But the most awesome figure is Jane Hanneman as Mrs. Lutestring. She flows or seems to float about the stage with a minimum of effort. Her physical presence is somewhere between an elderly and economic schoolteacher and a venerable mother superior. While her face is a magnet for one's eyes, her hands do more to establish her character and her maturity than any other part of her characterization. When not making appropriate gestures with her quite striking hands, she lets them fall gracefully and rest naturally at the end of her arms. This is a subtle but apt reflection on her character as a very mature adult with no need for foolish or idle gestures. Erica Sanchez is represented as the Minister of Health by a large video image. She doesn't appear on the stage until the curtain call. It seems a pity.
"Part Three -- The Thing Happens" deals with the government of the President of the British Isles in 2170 AD. It is a spirited debate about public policy and government. How could a nonagenarian who died before the second half of the 19th century have anything cogent to say about politics in the 22nd century? And if he did have something to say, would we really listen.
When you hear Shaw skewer the president and the political system, you will find a remarkable parallel with President George W. Bush. Moreover, Shaw's dialogue makes us realize how dreadfully inadequate political discourse is in the sound bite era. Shaw's comments and commentaries bite close to the bone and make us ponder the extent to which faceless Ministers and bureaucrats run our government and our lives.
Were things so bad in 1921 when Shaw published "Back To Methuselah" that he could see the future with such clarity? Surely the five parables that make up "Back To Methuselah" are meant to suggest messages and reflections to us in the future as well as those in his lifetime. In order to make sure that we at least hear his message, Shaw puts them in a theatrical context with wild characters and wonderfully funny dialogue and situations. You will find yourself laughing with Shaw and his characters as well as at the foibles of his politicians who, of course, cannot possibly behave like anyone we know on the public stage.
The first three parts (one act plays) that make up "Back To Methuselah" use only seven characters. One quickly sorts out who is who and watching them change in subtle ways from play to play make each new segment a further revelation.
"Back to Methuselah," Part C
The Department of Performing Arts of Marquette University's College of Communication is presenting the last two parts of "Back To Methuselah:" "Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman" and "As Far as Thought Can Reach." These are being co-produced with the Chamber Theatre, in close accord with the concept of Montgomery Davis. Let me note up front that under the capable direction of Phylis Ravel, the Marquette Theatre students perform at the level one has come to expect of Chamber Theatre productions. In and of itself, this is impressive.
"Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman" takes place on Galway Bay. It is a fine summer day in 3000 A.D. as the play opens on Burran Pier with an unhappy Elderly Gentleman. There is a list of rules posted on the back wall governing the movement of short-lived people. In a prophetic and ironic inspiration, Shaw places the capitol of the British Empire in Baghdad. The British Isles have been abandoned to the Irish and London is but a dim memory. Now the Western Islands are the home of the Temple Oracle. The long-lived people include Zoom, Zoo, and the Oracle. In addition to Elderly Gentlemen, the short-lived include Napoleon, the Prime Minister, his wife and his daughter. The delegation to the Oracle demonstrates the problem of confronting the Ancient Ones but arrive at a short-term solution.
Following the very amusing confrontations of the confrontations between the short and long lived; the scene for "As Far As Thought Can Reach" is set in a sunlit glade at the Southern foot of a thickly wooded hill. The scene opens on a sylvan scene with charming young people dancing enthusiastically. We come to find out that these young people range between eight months and a bit over three years. The year is 31,920 A.D. We are seeing the children who will become Ancient Ones over the course of centuries.
Just as Mrs. Lutesong used her hands to show that she was very old and fully mature. These young ones dance and cavort and use extravagant hand gestures that are immature but charming. Two Ancient Ones appear and interact with the children. We find that as the children reach the age of four, they abandon the childish and romantic pursuits of their youth and seek isolation for contemplation. They come close to abandoning their physical bodies in pursuit of pure thought.
There is a delightful interval where we witness a birth of a child from a large egg clearly not in our form of reproduction. There is a lively debate on Art versus reality and two scientific artistic efforts at human replication appear. They are seen to be horrid. The Ancients disappear and Adam, Eve, and Lilith appear to contemplate what they have started. The entire cycle has spun out and the audience is called to confront the future.
Shaw was a savant, a polemicist, a wit, and a critic. As G. K. Chesterton said of him, he was also a devoted Puritan. In "Back To Methuselah," Shaw, the playwright, uses living breathing actors to demonstrate his thesis and the audience must come to the conclusion that no matter how far mankind evolves, one cannot separate body and soul.
The Aristotelian Platonic division cannot be found in nature. Each of us is a unit of flesh and spirit and no amount of contemplation will allow us to divorce the spirit from the flesh. While Shaw doesn't say so, the conclusion of "Back To Methuselah" demonstrates this fundamental truth. GBS could argue until he was blue in the face but he was still honest enough to face the inevitable. His vision is theatrical play albeit of a very august level.
Taking the journey or even a small part of it with Shaw is a thrilling and inspiring experience that I encourage all of you to enjoy.
The Department of Performing Arts has shown once again that given good direction and inspiration, it can play side by side with the big boys. Their performances in New York were not just a fluke; this is another plus for Milwaukee theatre and Milwaukee audiences.
Everyone deserves praise but I must single out Darci Wutz's choreography and the physical and emotional control of the actors. The Helfaer Theater is an excellent venue and deserves many more visitors for subsequent production. Be assured that these are not merely the gushing of an old alumnus, but the considered judgment of a serious critic.
