"The Understudy' at the Wilma (2nd review)

It will probably take a few years before anyone can fully assess the consequences of Jiri Zizka's never fully explained departure from the Wilma Theater last year after more than 30 years as its co-director. However, the company's current production of The Understudy suggests one of the challenges the Wilma must now overcome in his absence.

For one thing, until the company finds a permanent replacement, it must hire outsiders to direct productions in Jiri's place. The Wilma's first attempt—snagging Anne Kauffman last year to direct Gina Gionfriddo's comic psychodrama Becky Shaw— proved critically successful, netting the company five Barrymore Awards.

But Becky Shaw doesn't fit the Wilma's customary philosophical/political aesthetic approach. Theresa Rebeck's The Understudy doesn't seem like it inhabits these confines either, especially in its current staging.

Rebeck's plot follows a pair of actors—a Hollywood "action hero" and his understudy, a "serious actor"— as they try to rehearse scenes from a recently discovered play by Kafka. Rebeck's themes deal primarily with parochial concerns: the politics of casting, the sacrifices required to pursue a career in the theater, and the mishaps that occur during a production.

The metaphysical approach

Contrast these issues with the tone of the Wilma's habitual fare. Jason Sherman's Patience, produced in 2001, blended chaos theory with a modern-day story of Job to question the importance of success, material possessions and happiness.

Tom Stoppard's Rock "'n' Roll (2008), concerned the need to reconsider one's ideals in the face of artistic forces and the sweep of history. Carol Churchill's A Number (2006) examined the fundamental nature of identity in a world that embraces human cloning.

For the most part, the Wilma's approach to selecting and producing plays— even the politically inclined texts— contains a metaphysical or existential aspect. Unlike political plays that focus on a single issue, the dramas chosen by the Wilma have forced the audience to see beyond the particular and confront the basic problems of existence itself.

Blown opportunity

On the surface, the laugh-heavy Understudy seems a misfit in this group. However, Rebeck made Kafka the author of The Understudy's "play-within-a-play," and director David Kennedy could have staged her script in a manner that reflected the themes of fate, faceless bureaucracies and moral impotence found in Kafka's The Castle and The Trial.

Instead, Kennedy plays The Understudy as a pure comedy. His direction asks the actors to express their frustration with specific, annoying things, rather than at vague, ominous forces. In the world of his production, the pot-smoking lighting board operator, constantly missing her cues, operates as a realistic rather than a metaphorical device. Which is fine if you're going for a farce in the style of Michael Frayn's Noises Off. But it misses the mark when you're directing a show to suit the Wilma's traditionally larger sensibilities.

Hard choice

Jiri Zizka would have illustrated the deeper, more disturbing qualities of Rebeck's play. Yes, in doing so, he might have killed the comedic aspects, as he did in Ying Tong (2008) and Hysteria (2009). But when confronted with the choice between making audiences laugh and asking them to reflect, the Wilma has traditionally chosen the latter task— or, in its best works, accomplished both goals simultaneously.

Of course, the Wilma might have decided to change its aesthetic as well; the company did stage its first ever Shakespeare play after Jiri's departure. Every theater company is an evolving work in progress. But with a self-referential backstage comedy like The Understudy, you can't help but wonder: Is this why Jiri and Blanka Zizka fled from Communist Czechoslovakia back in the '70s? ♦


To read another review by Dan Rottenberg, click here.
To read another comment by Jackie Atkins, click here.