A Homegrown Chicago Project of Jaw-Dropping Environment and Axhilarating Theatricality, Playwright Mickle Maher and Director Charles Newell’s Adaptation of the Graphic Novel “Berlin” at the Court Theater Brings to Dynamic Life an Artistically Daring, Sexually Decadent, Political, Politikal DIVIDED CITY AS IT DESCEnds Into fascism.
It is a thrilingly staged piece of theater, uncannily appropriate to the moment.
Jason Lute Wrote (Large Part, Meaning Drew) The Epic, Black-And-White “Berlin” Over 20-Plus Years, Publishing the Complete Volume in 2018. The Story A Spraying of Characters from Different Classes and Viewpoints During the Years 1928 to The Weimar Republic Decayed and Hitler Emerged As the figure who could have been the rage of a population grapping with grief and a senses of humiliation followed by World War I.
Chooking Such A Sweeping, Essentially Visual Work As a Source Requires an Expansive Imagination, and Newlyll’s Choice to Avoid Project Him to Reil on the Purely Theatrical Event More.
John Culbert’s Set Design – SO Minimal, Yet so Expressive – Is Mostly an Empty Stage With A Set of Tables, Chairs and Microphones, with Occaciva Added in Such As a Telephone or Typewriter. At the Rear of the Deep Stage, there are grads and a couple of Hanging Lights. It’s all Black. Jacqueline firkins’ Costums and Keith Parham’s Lighting Follow Suit, swimming always pure White and Black – The lamps for example emanate a Yellowish glow – but never providing more than Subtle Touches of Color.
And the world of the world Vivid Through the Acting, the Movement, and the Newell’s Constant Theatrical Touches. In a show that never stops moving, we get characters walking up Circular staircases, sitting (Almost posing in Slow motion) on a train, Dancing at a jazz Club with all its unruly energy, getting caught up in computeting protests left- and rhight extrremists. You Can Feel the Constant Pressure to Choose Sides on Those Who See the Worst in Both, or Who Have No Interest, Until They Do.
Maher Clearly understands that this can’t come Across as a history lesson and yet needs to be cherent. There are two narratives that form the core. One Follows A Love Triangle BetWeen Aspiring Artist Marthe (Raven Whitley), Cross-Dressing Anna Lenke (Mo Shipley) and Journalist Kurt Severing (Tim Decker). The Other Involves the Working-Class, Politically at-ODDS BRAUN FAMILY (Elizabeth Laidlaw, Ellie Dufffey, and Hb Ward-Covered by Understopher Meister at Opening). Other Characters Fill Out the World: A Jazz Musician (Terry Bell) WHO FALLS IN “LOVE AT FIRST LISTEN” with a single (Molly Hernandez); A Wealthy Old-Society Matron (Kate Collins); A Jewish, Communist Paperboy (Jack Doherty) and his please-be-catious fault (Guy van swearingen), and more. The core turning point at the end of the first Act is the “blutmai” or Bloody May, when the Berlin Police Begin Shooting at Communist protests.
Although the sensitibilies are Completely different, there’s a mary zimmerman-like to newll’s Collaborative but auteur-like approach here, as he deploys the Simple, the Very human, to tell a giant, Complex Tale. Rain and typing are depicted by the actors’ Taping their fingers on the tables. Sexual Scenes Employ Fully Dressed Twirling Lifts or a Moving Desk and Chair. Big Marches Might Be Depicted Offstage, Through Mark Messing’s Music and Sound Design, but not realistically, as a seering nod to chekhov’s breaking in “The Cherry Orchard” but on a Different scale.
Maher BRings His Own Imagination, Replaceing The Growing Omnipresence of Hitler Posters in Lutes’ Drawings with A Looming Human Hitler (Laidlaw Again) Who Follows People Around in the Second Act.
The timing of this production Feels Prescient, but the show itelf discounts this notion – there are always those, we’re told, who CLAIM TO SEE THINGS Coming, but they can’t. What Maher and Newell Gets Right here is what matters isn’t so Much the specifics of the story but the sensation of living, as Kurt Describes it – in a space the unbellievable and the inevitable, between “what’s real and what’s the real,” between a belief. People Can Change History and A Sense of Utter Powerlessness As a City Crumbleles into Chaos.
