The tormented world of Tennessee Williams
is not easy to reproduce on stage. It takes acting and direction
often beyond the scope of community theater. So it is with special
enthusiasm that this reviewer recommends the Heights Players’
"Sweet Bird of Youth."
The play is directed by Robert J. Weinstein ("A Midsummer
Night’s Dream," "Romeo and Juliet," "The
Desperate Hours") and stars Susan Smith as Alexandra Del
Lago, the has-been movie star masquerading as Princess Kosmonopolis,
and Christopher Johnson, in his Heights Players debut, as Chance
Wayne, the would-be gigolo who supplies Del Lago with hashish
and sex in the hope that she will give him the boost he needs
to rise to movie stardom.
The Broadway production, which opened in 1959 at the Martin Beck
Theatre, was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Geraldine Page
and Paul Newman. (The 1962 film also starred Page and Newman
in a censored, some say castrated, adaptation.) These two stars
most probably set the standard for all subsequent interpretations,
but even with such formidable footsteps to follow, Johnson and
Smith do not stumble.
Johnson is sexy in a dissipated and desperate way. He’s also
alternately sensitive, and sadistic, and capable of a reckless
courage. He is not beyond shame.
Smith delivers complicated monologues and conveys emotional swings
with the ease and artistry of a true professional. She’s divinely
haughty and brutally depraved but not beyond sympathy.
Although Williams, in his own dialogue, claims the play is about
the "enemy time in us all," one suspects "Sweet
Bird of Youth" is more about the enemy that is ourselves
within us all – sexual rapacity and sexual repression, the desire
for power and money, and self-delusion.
All these themes are present in "Sweet Bird of Youth."
Boss Finley (Edmund McCarthy, who commands the stage every time
he appears) is a corrupt politician who has destroyed the romance
between Chance and his daughter, Heavenly (the convincing Dana
Bennison) because he wants his daughter to marry someone whose
connections will advance his political career. After Chance infects
Heavenly with syphilis, Finley vows revenge. But Chance is determined
to wrest Heavenly from her father’s grip.
At the same time, Boss Finley is attempting to retain control
of his fiefdom despite rumors of his daughter’s fall from grace.
Finley, who claims he came down from the red clay hills on some
kind of a mission, returns to the same theme that has served
him so well in the past – the call to arms against black men
who are threatening white maidenhood. As Chance and Finley struggle
for Heavenly’s soul, Finley and a lone Heckler (Gabriel Edelman)
struggle for the soul of the south.
This production shines with outstanding performances in the supporting
roles – Marilyn Beck as Nonnie, the kindhearted aunt who cautions
Chance to leave town before he gets himself either killed or
castrated; Keisha Alfred as Miss Lucy, Boss Finley’s saucy and
wise mistress; and Jamie Wollrab as Tom Finley Jr., the Boss’s
insipid son.
It also sports the beautiful and evocative sets of Gerry Newman,
original music by Audiomind and fight scenes that owe their violent
realism to the choreography of TJ Glenn.
"Sweet Bird of Youth" starts intensely, but slowly.
This is mostly due to Williams’ dialogue, which although brilliant,
can be verbose. But after the first act, the action speeds up
so quickly that one is no longer bothered by the length of the
play, which runs for close to three hours with two intermissions.
At a time when the highly visual experience of film has cast
a shadow over the more literary stage scripts of a bygone era,
the poetry of playwrights like Tennessee Williams are a joyful,
sometimes painful, reminder of the power of the spoken word.
It is through words that Williams’ characters experience and
explain the depth of their despair. The Gallery Players has taken
those words and brought Williams powerful imagery to life on
stage.
This production has a depth we don’t often see on stage these
days – on Broadway or in Brooklyn.
The Heights Players production of "Sweet Bird of Youth"
runs through Jan. 26, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays
at 2 pm. Tickets are $10, $8 seniors and students. The theater
is located at 26 Willow Place at State Street in Brooklyn Heights.
For reservations, call (718) 237-2752.
