Entertainment Writer
Watching Theatre/Theater’s current production of Orpheus Descending, it’s difficult to imagine just why the Tennessee Williams play got such an unwelcome reception when it hit Broadway in 1957— especially considering it was a sixth-generation rewrite to which the Southern playwright had devoted 17 years. Based on the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, it is as poignant now as that myth presumably had been in ancient Greece.
Although Orpheus Descending‘s themes are timeless, perhaps 1950s America wasn’t ready to embrace its dark truths about human nature. In today’s art world, however, we seek to uncover what life lurks beneath the masks of our daily lives— what secrets a plain woman who runs a dry-goods store may be hiding deep inside.
In the play, a young, charismatic guitar-player named Val (Gale Harold of Queer as Folk) arrives in a small, repressive Southern town, where he develops a relationship with Lady (Denise Crosby of Star Trek: The Next Generation), an older woman whose bad marriage is linked to her tragic past. Val reawakens life in her, both figuratively and literally. In Val, she sees an opportunity to escape from her dreary, loveless life, but the townspeople, complete with gossips and Klan members, are determined to stifle the passions and creative expressions of any non-conformists and banish those who refuse to yield.
Val’s arrival into town is that of a stranger to this world, much like Orpheus when he descends into Hades to resurrect Eurydice, but, just as the Greek myths were of their time, this is a cautionary tale of our own time; even though society has come a long way from an enslaved South, we still have to travel a long way before we’re truly free. It is that search for freedom in its purest form that is a theme throughout the play— a complex, bittersweet work that is at all times attuned to how man’s destiny is shaped by society. Indeed, it is the epitome of a literary work whose type of conflict is that of “man versus society.”
As the mysterious drifter, Harold is a charmer in his snakeskin jacket and buttoned-down button-down, especially when he begins to strum and croon; with a honey-dripped voice and heartfelt singing, he mesmerizes the audience as he seduces Lady. (His short-but-sweet musical numbers are the highlights of the production.) Crosby, in her sensible mid-century dresses and usual short-cropped blonde bob, is grounded and relatable in her role as the store’s purveyor. Her transformation from the homely, practical, embittered wife into a sexually reawakened woman is subtle and utterly believable, and her performance seems well informed by the heartrending back-story Williams created for her character. Model-turned-actress Claudia Mason brings a nuanced and delicate turn as Carol Cutrere, who the county has made into a pariah for her promiscuous lifestyle (although we all know it’s really because of her civil-rights activism). Tall and svelte with dark locks of long hair, Mason is like a frail Vampira of the South whose determined strength of character is no match for the oppressive society in which she exists.
In addition to the ideas of freedom and societal conformity is the theme of corruption, about which the play asks as much as it explains. What is corruption, and who is corrupt? Is it the wife who seeks redemption through adultery? Or the faithful dying husband who keeps his county clean of “sinners?” The nurse who nurtures the life of a murderer? And who is pure? The town’s women who steer clear of sin (if gossip isn’t a sin) and ostracize flirtatious, flashy women? Or the musician traveling through, who cleanses his own corrupt soul with music?
Theater Theater’s production of Orpheus Descending may not answer these questions in a way any more comforting than the way it asks them, but its cast performs beautifully. If art does purify, as Val suggests, then the souls of these actors are washed clean.
Orpheus Descending continues at Theatre/Theater, 5041 Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles through Feb. 21. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm.
More Information
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