{"id":7220,"date":"2013-09-17T09:30:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T16:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=7220"},"modified":"2013-10-17T14:28:36","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T21:28:36","slug":"revolution-asks-whether-right-and-wrong-can-flip-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/revolution-asks-whether-right-and-wrong-can-flip-flop\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Revolution\u2019 asks whether right and wrong can flip-flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woody’s rating:3.5 (3.5\/5 stars)<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

How many American Marxists can dance on the head of the pin?<\/p>\n

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Emma (Jessica Bates) learns the truth about her blacklisted grandfather from Ben (Rolf Saxon, seated) as Leo looks on (Victor Talmadge) in \u201cAfter the Revolution.\u201d Photo: David Allen.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cAfter the Revolution,\u201d the Aurora\u2019s Theatre\u2019s cerebral immersion in the ethical struggles of three generations of a left-leaning family, doesn\u2019t answer my cheeky question.But it does deal with other Big Issues.<\/p>\n

Such as whether the Machiavellian aphorism that the end justifies the means has validity, if right and wrong are written in concrete, and how yesterday\u2019s actions impact today\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

Along the way, the dramedy makes sure to swipe at the Red-baiting, witch-hunting tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Watching the show is like gazing into a retroscope \u2014 and then deconstructing what you think you\u2019ve seen. Not that far removed from a multi-pronged Talmudic discussion about the essence of truth.<\/p>\n

In effect, it\u2019s a history lesson wrapped in secrets and lies.It helps if you\u2019re familiar with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, with the Verona Project (that led to decryptions that in turn revealed data about U.S. spies), and with initial Jewish hopes and subsequent disenchantment with Josef Stalin.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re not, the program guide will give you an abridged crash course.<\/p>\n

Playwright Amy Herzog and director Joy Carlin, an actor and theatrical teacher who has an unforgettable scene opposite Cate Blanchett in Woody Allen\u2019s \u201cBlue Jasmine,\u201d do their utmost to sketch a living portrait of a family ruptured by an old secret.It\u2019s a serious look in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n

But they also extract the max from two roles that lend themselves to laugh-lines.<\/p>\n

That of Vera, the rickety but still feisty widow of Joe, the Joseph family\u2019s blacklisted hero, and Jess, the drugged-out sister of Emma, an overachiever who just graduated from law school and is determined to spread the clan\u2019s social-justice messages.<\/p>\n

Vera becomes a carry-over character in Herzog\u2019s subsequent play, \u201c4000 Miles,\u201d a comic drama that shows the playwright\u2019s evolution as an artist and that has infinitely more charm and tenderness than \u201cRevolution.\u201dWhen I reviewed the American Conservatory Theatre\u2019s \u201cMiles\u201d production in January, I wrote that Herzog leaned on the six months she\u2019d lived in Manhattan with her 96-year-old grandmother, the natural resource for the Vera persona.<\/p>\n

Here she\u2019s immensely likable.<\/p>\n

But Em, the focus of the play portrayed by Jessica Bates, is not. She\u2019s robotic, humorless and abrasive.An intellectual, cold fish.<\/p>\n

The story takes place in 1999, when Em wants to use the foundation that bears the name of her grandfather to free accused Black Panther cop-slayer Mumia Abu-Jamal.<\/p>\n

We learn early on, however, that Joe wasn\u2019t quite so innocent: He\u2019d given the Russians classified material. We also discover that Emma\u2019s dad withheld that information from her. So Emma suddenly must deal with both father and grandfather having clay feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Revolution\u201d has numerous positive attributes.<\/p>\n

Ellen Ratner is the top one. She steals the show many-faceted Vera, the cranky die-hard lefty with a big heart.<\/p>\n

Rolf Saxon is also outstanding, as Ben, a history instructor who gets off on rubbing people the wrong way (even at parent\u2013teacher confabs).And Sarah Mitchell depicts Jess, the sister who\u2019s repeatedly been confined to rehab but ultimately snaps her twin bonds of agony and isolation, as concurrently weak and strong.<\/p>\n

The dual-level set by J.B. Wilson, compact and simple (with plain wooden tables and chairs, a distinctly indistinct couch and a backdrop telephone poles and wires), allows quick scene changes.<\/p>\n

The cast, not incidentally, frequently and artfully accomplishes those changes in the dark.<\/p>\n

Costuming by Callie Floor, with robes and pajamas establishing a contrasting tone to commonplace daily apparel, also is highly effective.As are the frequent upswept hairstyles adopted by the protagonist, each a hint of where Emma\u2019s head is at any given point \u2014 hopeful, depressed, angry, elated.<\/p>\n

Herzog occasionally tries to sum up her thinking.<\/p>\n

Notes Emma, for instance, \u201c\u2018Good politics\u2019 in my generation is different from \u2018good politics\u2019 in your generation.\u201d And Peter Kybart, playing Morty, an elder who wants to leave his estate to the foundation, refers nostalgically to a past in which, in the East Village, you could throw a stone anywhere and hit a spy.Ben sets the mood: \u201cClinton is a big-business president, the poor are getting poorer, racial divides are deepening\u2026and it\u2019s hard to image things getting much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because McCarthyism targeted a member of my own family, I went to \u201cAfter the Revolution\u201d with high hopes of being able to relate. I left disappointed\u00a0 \u2014 because I\u2019d wanted to be touched.<\/p>\n

And my brain was but my heart wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Revolution<\/em>\u201d runs at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through Sept. 29. Night performances, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Tuesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $16-$50. Information: (510) 843-4822 or www.auroratheatre.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody’s rating:3.5 (3.5\/5 stars) How many American Marxists can dance on the head of the pin? \u201cAfter the Revolution,\u201d the Aurora\u2019s Theatre\u2019s cerebral immersion in the ethical struggles of three…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"