The Fortuneteller (1991)

Mac Wellman

#frontmezzjunkies reviews: #TheFlea's #TheInventionOfTragedy by #MacWellman directed by #MeghanFinn @meghanfinn featuring #TheBats #DritaKabashi #SusanLy #SarahAliceShull @TheFleaTheater #MacWellmanFestival #offoffbroadway #newplay

The Cast of The Invention of Tragedy. Photo by Hunter Canning.

The Review: The Flea’s The Invention of Tragedy

By Ross

“Hot Damn“. [Laughter] The Narrator, uniquely portrayed with musical dexterity by the compelling Sarah Alice Shull (The Flea’s Not My Monster!) informs us, leads us, instructs us, with a clear force and somewhat monotone musical delivery. This is “the story about the tragedy of…

1/20/16

The Offending Gesture is a very funny satire of Nazi Germany, war, and two dogs at the center of a conflict. Written by Mac Wellman, the play includes an all-female cast and a full score accompanying the story throughout the production. The play runs through 1/23 at The Connelly Theatre, 220 East 4th Street. For tickets and more information visit thetanknyc.org. Read the Theasy review here.

Theasy interviewed director Meghan Finn and composer/performer Alaina Ferris to learn more about the project and its development.

THEASY: Do you consider The Offending Gesture a political play?



MEGHAN FINN: Yes. But it isn't didactic, the poetry, word-play and humor leave plenty of room for interpretation. I think that's part of its power—it should leave folks talking. For me, Iraq and the ties to Western interests initiated during Winston Churchill's time—and the bridge to the contemporary Middle East—was what made the project potent. And during this process, I found it particularly powerful that Layla, an Iranian American woman, is depicting Adolf Hitler at this moment in the American political theater. There is a great deal of slippage in Layla's comedy, taking on this dictator and his rhetoric when we have so much hate being spouted around the election every day. There have been many moments working on the piece that I have wished it were a little less relevant.  

ALAINA FERRIS: To me, it is a political play, a moralist play, and existential play. The play is so funny, which is brought out so artfully by our lead actresses, Layla Khoshnoudi, Kristine Haruna Lee, and Abby Rosebrock, who all have pristine comedic timing. But, the play is also very sad. 

Layla [as Hitler] is very likable. She is beautiful, funny, strange, and charming. If Hitler is likable, then it’s easy to understand why his dog Blondie wants to please. However, by doing so, Blondie becomes complicit in [the party’s] larger schemes, even though Blondie herself has no intention of hurting anyone. The audience, too, is complicit when they become invested and empathetic in Blondie's struggle. If one understands why a dog would want to please her master, then one can understand how a large group of people would follow a leader into a war. Mac has said on multiple occasions that alienating Hitler, treating him like an atypical individual, is dangerous because it does not teach us to how to deal with possibility that what he did is something that potentially any of us could do. Jackie’s final line in the play, “What Means Human” speaks to this for me. Existential inquiry is essential if one is at all interested in improving this world. That is why Blondie’s final monologue (I often tear up when Abby is reciting it) is so emotional for me.

THEASY: When did music become a part of the production? 


AF: Mac always intended for there to be vocal music in this piece. He was listening to Henryk Górecki’s Miserere while writing the script. So, he had in mind a chorus, which he envisioned as mooncats. Additionally, he wrote lyrics for Mooncat Ballad in the original script. The musical numbers in the play happen anytime the script says “Mooncats sing for a time” or anytime the mooncats have text.




THEASY: What was the process like conceiving the music?



AF: I wrote some of the pieces early on in our workshop at NYU. However, my compositional process really took off after we cast the show and started rehearsals. This is for two reasons: 

Our vocalists are all musicians and composers: Lacy Rose, Starr Busby, Julia Sirna-Frest, Catherine Brookman, and myself. Each vocalist has a unique timbre, which they’ve gained through years of practice and work. I was very inspired to write for and highlight each individual. I’ve been continually excited about our capability as an ensemble. We are often singing five-part harmonies, completely aware of each other’s vowel choices, breath placement, and phrasing variations. As an example, we sing a fugue titled “He Will, Will He Not?” and if one vocalist changes their part, we all follow and accommodate that change. What we do as a vocal ensemble is so special to me because the level of skill demonstrated to pull of the music is not something that can be captured in a recording—we are responding to events and circumstances in real time. 

The compositions were also a response to our rehearsal process. Once we got into the room, it became clear when certain emotions or textures were needed. Meghan and I talked about what we thought would work in advance, but Meghan as a director is very sensitive to following intuition in the room. She would often sense in rehearsal when a song was needed in a certain place. I would go home and write, then bring in a draft score. If it fit, I would finish developing it then Meghan would set and stage it. It was a very organic, conversational process.

MF: The process was collaborative in that it involved her being inspired through the dramaturgy and working in the room through the workshop and rehearsal. For me it was important that the music ground the work in the realities of war—so that the humor wouldn't allow the piece to become simply a comedic Hitler send up.




THEASY: Were there any sources of inspiration or references that informed your work on The Offending Gesture?



MF: This chilling photograph [brought in by set designers Justin and Chris Swader] inspired the set.

It was supposedly taken at Terezín, the concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. It is said that each shelf held the individual file of a person. For me, these shelves carry the presence of the victims of the Holocaust within the context of Nazi Germany and by the end of the play, civilian casualties of the American Iraqi Wars. As average Americans we live our lives divorced psychically from the actual body counts in the past decade and a half of conflicts, drones, and what have you. For me, this moment, and the moment during the composition Misery My Maiden where we see hands reaching toward an eagle in shadow are meant to represent the victims—both the refugees and the dead.

AF: The photogrpah brought in a huge source of inspiration, [leading] me to research Terezín and learn about a Jewish avant-garde theater composer named Rafael Schächter. Schächter, after being taken into Terezin, amassed a choir in secret to continue his practice as a musician. He eventually gathered over 200 people in his choir and gained consent from the Nazi camp director to work publicly. His final work in the camp was Verdi’s Requiem, which Schächter thought would invoke judgement on the Nazi’s for their choices. Sadly, his choir slowly dwindled and he himself died on the way to Austerlitz. 

This spoke to me because we had been singing choral works all throughout the rehearsal process and the choral pieces became more a function of showing how, though this play is ridiculous and funny, it is moreso ridiculous because it is grounded in truth. The music is the counterbalance to all the levity.

One final fun thing to note is our musical instruments: We have the drums (played by Sarah Bennett), which are traditionally a war-time instrument, we have a Rhodes piano, an American instrument whose history is rooted in WWII, along with a Waldorf synthesizer, which is from Germany. We have the autoharp, harmonium, and flute to nod to traditional Finnish music.

THEASY: What do you hope audiences take away from the production?

MF: I hope they walk away moved, talking and thinking. And laughing is okay too.


THEASY: We don't see too many plays about Nazi Germany (especially with Hitler portrayed comically by a woman). Why do you suspect that is? Did you have any qualms or reservations about the most effective way to use such an inflammatory figure?

MF: I read a book a number of years ago called Nazi Women by Cate Haste.  I found it interesting the appeal that Hitler had for German women coming out of WWI—he was a celebrity (it was a kind of Beatlemania around him) and the ideas driving Nazi Germany had a lot to offer women as the head of the "Volk," heads of the family, giving birth to the new order, etc. It was empowering and exciting for them. I find it dangerous to forget historical details like this. When we demonize characters like Hitler and deify figures like Winston Churchill I think it is a missed opportunity to learn from history and make changes in the way we respond to the present. It is more useful to look at the ways historical heroes were villainous and villains were human beings making monstrous decisions. The kind of self-interest that we're all capable of.



THEASY: What's your personal favorite moment/quality/thing about The Offending Gesture?



AF: When we are singing behind the flag, which is a hybrid of the Nazi eagle and American eagle. It is incredibly emotional for us as singers because we can’t see the audience (this is evocative [of] Hildegarde Von Bingham and 12th century nuns singing from the shadows in the cloisters), but we can feel the intensity of listening. We can see our arms and hands casting shadows on the flag, which immediately summons images of prisoners or refugees. This moment feels like both a cry for help and a call to action.