Firefighters (front l-r, Tristan Cunningham*, Kevin Clarke) observe as a policeman (r, Michael Uy Kelly) pays a surprise visit, and Mr. Biedermann (c, Dan Hiatt*) tries to get to the bottom of the arsonists’ (l, Tim Kniffin*, c. l, Michael Ray Wisely*) actions in his attic in The Arsonists
THE ARSONISTS: Comic/Drama by Max Frisch and directed by Mark Jackson. Aurora Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. April 11 – May 12, 2013
THE ARSONISTS at Aurora Theatre is classic Mark Jackson
Ever since auteur Mark Jackson exploded on the local scene with his brilliant production of The Death of Meyerhold that he wrote and directed under the auspices of The Shotgun Players in 2003, he is in great demand as a director. His works do not ‘grace’ the local stages they explode with energy. So it is with Aurora Theatre’s staging of The Arsonist by Max Frisch.
Frisch is not new the bay area since his play, then titled The Firebugs was presented in 1999 by American Citizen’s Theatre, directed by Allen McKelvey starring Louis Parnell (Biedermann) Schmitz (Matthew Henerson), Phoebe Moyer (Babette), and Peter Hadres (Eisenring) on the intimate Off Center stage at the Dean Lesher in Walnut Creek. Their translation was by Michael Bullock and relied on the words and quality acting to convey its meaning. The acting in this Aurora mounting is superb with the male characters being dominant to the underwritten female roles but the play is not the thing. Mark Jackson’s direction is.
Frisch has rewritten the play that began as a radio drama before being converted into a stage play and has had imaginative staging elsewhere. Jackson’s conceptual interpretation is brilliant but his tendency to use excessive physicality overpowers any message(s) that the author wishes to convey.
The play can be interpreted on multiple levels but seems to be a parable about appeasement and it has been suggested it was Frisch’s “way of getting at political issues through the medium of theatre.” It certainly lives up to that interpretation since it was inspired by the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948.
There is an arsonists loose in the town and no one knows where he (they) will strike next. The main character Biedermann (Dan Hiatt at his best) a respected, ruthless businessman who will protect his property and family at all costs. The dynamic first scene where Biedermann attempts to light a cigar and three firefighters [Frisch’s Greek chorus] (Kevin Clarke, Tristan Cunningham, and Michael Uy Kelly) burst from the wings, sets the tone: Biederrmann to the audience: “It’s not easy these days, lighting a cigar everyone thinks the whole world’s about to go up in flames.” How prophetic.
When homeless Schmitz (Michael Ray Wisely) appears at the door Biedermann becomes implicitly involved in his own destruction. With an extremely clever dialog repartee between the two men Schmitz is invited to sleep in the attic and the start of the action that will lead to a fiery destruction begins.
Schmitz’s abettor Eisenring (Tim Kniffen), unbeknownst to the family shares the attic and is the brains behind the operation. Where Schmitz is the brawn behind the plot, Eisenring is the brains and Kniffen’s acting creates a character that is frightening beginning with a disarming entrance and builds to a frightening level. Hiatt conveys the frustration and fear to the nth degree as he deludes himself thinking that by making friends with the arsonist his domain will be spared. A mesmerizing 85 minute running time without intermission.
Even though the quality of the acting is unquestioned it is Nina Ball’s powerful set that steals the show with sound (Matt Stines) and light (Stephanie Bucher) cues bursting within the intimate theatre engulfing the audience in the cataclysmic ending. It is a theatrical event that should not be missed although you might desire the more staid but no less frightening translation and performance by the American Citizen’s Theatre.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
