The Revolutionists
The World Premiere of this searing drama is written,
directed and produced by Michael Bertish.
It is playing at the Imago space, 17 SE 8th Ave. (off
Burnside) through July 22nd.
For more information, go to their site at www.adroitpdx.com
We all have, I believe, moments in our lives when things
just don’t click for us. We may feel out
of step with the rest of the world, or it with us. Some are small issues and we just adapted to
whatever. Others are pretty monumental
and their paths could affect the course of the world in a negative way. And so, it is up to those few, those precious
few, to step up to the plate and say, “No More!” and a revolution is born. Such was the case in a certain time period in
the 1700’s in America. Also, currently,
the MeToo Movement. And between that
earlier era and now, there was something called WWII, the Nazis and a band of
brave souls who stood up to them.
Tilde (Diane Kondrat) is an elderly Jewish lady, now living
in a flat in NYC in the mid-90’s. She is
a survivor of this Evil Empire and their ugly plan to wipe them out. But, possibly more important, she was a
member of the Resistance in Austria, where her home was. But age is catching up with her, and her
grandson, Micky (Morgan Lee) is curious about her past and, so now, may be the
time to tell her story…. (It gets tricky
at this point, since so few actors were playing many roles, that I may have
gotten character names mixed up, so I apologized if I did).
Tilde claims she knew and became friends with Freud (Chris
Porter) and his wife, Martha (Jody McCoy) and Einstein (Gary R. Powell), and
even knew Hitler (Leif Norby), before he came to power, as a street painter in
a café where she and her mother, Amalia (Amy Joy Allahdadi) would
frequent.
But things were changing very quickly in Austria in the
thirties, with the takeover of many countries by the Nazis, and so café life,
the hub of social and political activity, was disintegrating. People had to leave, including the Pianist
(Jeffrey Michael Kauffman) of the café and his finance, Edith (Sumi Wu), a
violinist. Even the café owner, Max (no
program credit for this role but assume it’s Gerry Birnbach) is degraded but he,
with Tilde, join the Resistance.
Her arduous journey from there to 1996 is compelling, with
many more characters adding to the story, played by Ethan Sloan, Joey Kelly,
Matthew Ostrowski, and Emily Nash. Can’t
tell you more without being a spoiler, but it is a fascinating story. Know that struggles are not yet over in this
world and, as pointed out in this tale, Monsters are not born but are created
by a mob, and they give the Beast a credibility and importance. If this situation echoes with certain leaders
of our current international conflicts, we can only hope that change is in the
wind, in which a world will work together for a more compassionate and
prosperous future for all.
The cast is first-rate, with Lee and Norby standing out, of
the supporting players. And Kondrat is
amazing as Tilde, as she is rarely offstage in this almost three-hour
production and her quick switches from one age to another are astounding. She is in a class by herself and the best
performance I’ve seen this year! Bertish
has quite an impressive story to tell and it holds you for the entire
narrative.
Some suggestions I would make on the script, though, are that when the story veers from Tilde’s person tale, those
scenes could be trimmed or cut. Also, an
easier way to list the cast/characters might be to do it as they appear in the
play. The character names of the actors
playing Hitler, Max and the Violinist (Sumi Wu, who is terrific on her
instrument) are not listed and it should be a clearer defining of these roles
(similar problem happened with PCS’s “Astoria”). Also, the title could be changed, as it
doesn’t give any clear concept of the story.
I highly recommend this play.
If you do see it, please tell them Dennis sent
you.
--DJS
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