The matchless dramatic poetry of Tennessee Williams elevates "Orpheus
Descending," which gets its sprawling due at Theatre/Theater. This
dark 1957 riff on the Orpheus myth receives a spare, evocative rendition
by documentary filmmaker Lou Pepe, his capable company brilliantly spearheaded
by Gale Harold and Denise Crosby as the tragic central pair.
Although Harold Clurman's Broadway staging -- revised by Williams from his
1940 "Battle of Angels" -- failed, "Orpheus" is pivotal
in the canon. Problematic yet arresting, this saga of a charismatic, guitar-wielding
drifter who enters the small-town Hades of an unhappily married, Sicilian-descended
storekeeper hovers directly between the playwright's triumphs and misfires.
Debuting stage director Pepe eschews literalism on designer David Mauer's
skeletal set. After a masked ritual by Curtis C's Conjure Man sets the archetypal
tone, a faux Greek chorus of town gossips (Kelly Ebsary and Sheila Shaw)
drolly launches the expository stakes.
In the company of degraded aristocrat Carol Cutrere (the wonderful Claudia
Mason), we enter vintage Williams territory, made all the more atmospheric
by Brandon Baruch's superb lighting and cast member Robert E. Beckwith's
blues-guitar accompaniment.
And when Harold appears as snakeskin-jacketed Val Xavier, followed by Crosby's
rigid Lady Torrance, "Orpheus" descends into riveting realms entirely
its own. The estimable ensemble, many playing multiple roles, includes ever-reliable
Francesca Casale as the sheriff's visionary wife and Geoffrey Wade as Lady's
dying, tyrannical husband. Still, all revolves around the Orpheus and Eurydice.
Harold, ideally cast, beautifully ignites with Crosby, whose unconventional
interpretation is an affecting revelation.
The three-act length may tax modern tastes, although Pepe's pace hardly
drags, and the racism and Southern gothic violence remain overt. "We're
all sentenced to solitary confinement for life" is Williams' keynote
here. It drives this resourceful revival.
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Edited byMarcy