The Joseph family (l. Rolf Saxon*, center l-r, Pamela Gaye Walker*, Ellen Ratner*, Victor Talmadge*) gather to celebrate Emma’s (c. Jessica Bates*) graduation from law school
Now through October 6 (added performances: Tuesday, October 1, 7pm; Wednesday, October 2, 8pm; Thursday, October 3, 8pm; Friday, October 4, 8pm; Saturday, October 5, 8pm; Sunday, October 6, 2pm).
AFTER THE REVOLUTION: Drama by Amy Herzog and directed by Joy Carlin. Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org.
Through September 29, 2013
AFTER THE REVOLUTION a thought provoking political family drama.
Amy Herzog is one of the bright young women playwrights who have rightfully gained fame in the theatrical world and are seeing a surge in the production of their plays. Not only are their plays being produced but they are being inundated with honors. In Herzog’s particular case some of those honors were rightfully heaped on After the Revolution that is the opening salvo of Aurora Theatre’s 22nd season.
The salvo resurrects the explosive time becoming known as the “McCarthy Era” and was the inspiration for the word McCarthyism referring to the practice of making unsubstantiated accusations of treason for political purposes. However there were men who committed act(s) of treason who went undetected. In Herzog’s remarkable play Joe Joseph was one of those men.
The long dead Joe Joseph was the patriarch of a Marxists clan that included his second wife Vera (Ellen Ratner), two sons, Ben (Rolf Saxon) and Leo (Victor Talmadge). Emma, (Jessica Bates) Ben’s youngest daughter, a brilliant lawyer, has set up a non-profit fund to free a former Black Panther journalist convicted of murdering a Philadelphia policeman. The fund has been named the “Joe Joseph Fund” in honor of her blacklisted grandfather. She has hired her bright young Mexican lawyer/ boyfriend Miguel (Adrian Anchondo) to work with her.
Rounding out the family relationships are Emma’s step-mother Mel (Pamela Gaye Walker) and older sister Jess (Sarah Mitchell) who is in rehabilitation for drug dependency. The final character is Morty (Peter Kybart) a wealthy donor to the fund. These three characters become integral to the denouement.
Altruistic Emma becomes emotionally and physically depressed when she learns that her revered Grandfather was not only a spy for the Soviet Union but a liar as well. This sets into motion tangled conflicts within herself , her extended family and Miguel. As written into the script her response to the devastating fall of her idol is overly dramatic. However Jessica Bates’ portrayal of Emma’s altruistic enthusiasm is electric as is her descent into depression. It is an absolutely superb totally believable performance.
Herzog has constructed a convoluted, yet brilliant, play that builds scene by scene (11scenes in act one), layer by layer creating well rounded characters and mostly plausible plot shifts. Herzog’s dialog is an actor’s dream and Rolf Saxon’s shift from a bombastic Marxist teacher to a parent in conflict with his family is stirring. Victor Talmadge does not have the emotional dialog of the others as he portrays the pillar of family stability and disappointed father with professional equanimity.
Adrian Anchondo makes you feel Miguel’s conflict as his relationship with Emma unravels. It is Ellen Ratner, Peter Kybart and Sarah Mitchell who add the much needed interludes of humor with each making the most of their limited time upon the stage.
This must be a difficult play for a director to mount but Joy Carlin’s staging of the multiple scenes set in multiple locations could not be better. The two hour and 10 minute running time (includes an intermission) is filled with memorable directorial conceits that augment the dialog and acting.
An added note: Set design by J.B. Wilson with the back wall of actual telephone poles and electrical wires is reminiscent of the ‘ash can’ school of painting prominent in the 30s and 40s and of a James Penny work in particular. (The title escapes me. It is in the Munson-Proctor Institute in Utica, New York)
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
