SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewAwake and Sing!
by Neil Dowden
|
If this life leads to a revolution, it's a good life — Jacob
|
Stockard Channing as Bessie .
(Photo: Hugo Glendenning)
|
As a social(ist)-realist dramatist, and co-founder of Group Theatre in 1931 (the theatre collective dedicated to dramatizing contemporary social-political issues), Odets may be seen as the forgotten — or at least neglected — forerunner of Arthur Miller. Of course, his work suffers in comparison with the dramatic richness and moral authority of Miller, but this vibrant ensemble production shows him to be much more than merely an outdated agit-prop dramatist. Even if Awake and Sing! creaks sometimes, the ideas remain relevant, the dialogue still fizzes and the hearts of the characters pump irrepressibly.
The Bergers are propelled by the indomitable energy of Bessie (Stockard Channing), a Jewish matriarch who is determined to protect the welfare of her family — whether they like it or not. In the midst of an unprecedented economic depression, with news of people being thrown on the scrapheap and family homes disintegrating, Bessie has become a domestic 'benevolent dictator'. She tries to stop her son Ralph (Ben Turner) seeing the girl he loves because she has no money, while when her daughter Hennie (Jodie Whittaker) becomes pregnant after a casual fling she immediately finds an unsuspecting Russian-Jewish immigrant (John Lloyd Fillingham) to marry her.
Bossing her amiable but ineffectual husband Myron (Paul Jesson) and her elderly Marxist father Jacob (John Rogan), while idolizing her hard-nosed wealthy businessman brother Morty (Trevor Cooper) and respecting the dodgy but successful gambling family friend Moe Axelrod (Nigel Lindsay), Bessie rules the roost. But with Jodie tiring of her wimpish husband Sam and the infatuated Moe pressing his suit, and Ralph increasingly inspired by his grandfather's advocacy of personal and political revolution, how long will the Berger family stick together?
The strength of Attenborough's punchy production lies in its convincing account of family dynamics. The Bergers are a close-knit family who shout and scream at one another, then the next moment are laughing together. However, we feel strongly the tensions and divisions between them, exacerbated by economic pressure, threatening to split the family apart. And there is a wider dichotomy between materialism and idealism which lies at the heart of Odets' message about the urgent necessity for radical change in society.
Tim Shortall's design — with its solid but faded furniture and washing on lines suspended over the front rows of the auditorium — evokes well the sense of a family trying to keep a decent home in the cramped conditions of a tenement block.
Stockard Channing lights up the stage as the formidable Bessie, with a strong yet graceful physical presence, alternating peremptory commands with acid put-downs. She gives a very funny performance, but also suggests without sentimentality the inner strain of a woman hardened over years of self-sacrifice and controlling others, who is becoming aware that she may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.
Nigel Lindsay makes a big impact as the aggressively cynical Moe, embittered by losing a leg in the First World War but not letting self-pity stop him making big bucks. Paul Jesson is a likeably passive Myron, Jodie Whittaker a selfish and fiery Hennie, and Ben Turner the frustrated Ralph who struggles to find his own way ahead. And John Rogan gives a delightfully warm, sympathetic performance as the eternally optimistic Jacob, who finds consolation in listening to records by Caruso— songs which carried an extra frisson on the day that another great Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, died.
To read about several American revivals of this play reviewed at Curtainup, see:
Awake and Sing at Berkshire Theatre Festival
Awake and Sing on Broadway (last year)
| Awake and Sing!
Written by Clifford Odets Directed by Michael Attenborough Starring: Stockard Channing, Paul Jesson, John Rogan, Ben Turner, Jodie Whittaker With: Nigel Lindsay, Trevor Cooper, John Lloyd Fillingham, Kieron Jecchinis Design: Tim Shortall Lighting: Paul Pyant Sound: John Leonard An Almeida Theatre production Running time: two hours, twenty minutes (including 15 minutes interval) Box Office: 020 7359 4404 Booking to 20 October 2007 Reviewed by Neil Dowden based on September 6th performance at Almeida Theatre, Almeida St, London N1 1TA (Tube: Angel/Highbury & Islington) |
|
London Theatre Tickets Lion King Tickets Billy Elliot Tickets Mary Poppins Tickets Mamma Mia Tickets We Will Rock You Tickets Theatre Tickets |
