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1960s Polish bombast
Gombrowicz's "Operetta' at Live Arts Festival (2nd review)
Jonathan M. Stein
The Gombrowicz play, banned for a time in Poland, has new music written for each production. This time, with its large cast of Polish actor/singers, it takes on a very pop and occasional Kurt Weill musical framework. It seeks to detonate all ideologies and modes of conduct in a relentless assault that employs satire and absurdity as well as an undercurrent of sexism, with uneven results for a contemporary audience that rarely sees such anarchic bombast on stage.
Like the '60s musical Hair (which is much tamer in its recent revivals), Operetta stands as a historical marker and an oddity of its time. That's not to say that a wild array of characters that includes a fashion dictator, ruling-class buffoons, eccentric aristocrats, and servants who evolve from polishing shoes to screaming "tear off their legs" during the staged revolution, don't at times delightfully hit their easy targets. It is a play of both repressed and explosive political and cultural eras, but one that still demonstrates the power of theater to subvert the ideologies of any time. ♦
To read another review by Merilyn Jackson, click here.
Like the '60s musical Hair (which is much tamer in its recent revivals), Operetta stands as a historical marker and an oddity of its time. That's not to say that a wild array of characters that includes a fashion dictator, ruling-class buffoons, eccentric aristocrats, and servants who evolve from polishing shoes to screaming "tear off their legs" during the staged revolution, don't at times delightfully hit their easy targets. It is a play of both repressed and explosive political and cultural eras, but one that still demonstrates the power of theater to subvert the ideologies of any time. ♦
To read another review by Merilyn Jackson, click here.
What, When, Where
Operetta. By Witold Gombrowicz; directed by Michal Zadara. Production by Teatre Muzyczny Capitol of Wroclaw/ Live Arts Festival, September 10-13, 2009 at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. (at Spruce). 215.413.1318 or www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=6891.
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