MORALITY PLAYS ASKEW AT ‘IN THE WORKS ‘85’ FEST

“The post-modern period in social science has begun with the malaise that comes from the realization that all of one’s analytic frameworks do very little to explain anything that is relevant to what is taking place in the world.”

So writes anthropologist William O. Beeman in Performing Arts Journal. The same impatience with yesterday’s structures is evident in contemporary dramaturgy, as witness Thomas Babe’s “Planet Fires” and Neal Bell’s “Sleeping Dogs,” seen last week on the Mark Taper Forum’s festival of plays in progress, “In the Works ’85.”

Babe’s play is a gaudy allegorical extravaganza, presenting post-Civil War America as a traveling medicine show run by a villainous Barnum named Van Amburgh. Bell’s play is a one-act fantasy about an insurance company executive who gets caught cooking the books of his company.

Each is a morality play of a sort, pointing to the fact that there’s something dark and crazy in the American soul, that we aren’t the innocents we claim to be, and never were. Perhaps that’s why the surface of each play is askew. The viewer has the sense that a story is being told, but he has a hard time grabbing on to it.

In “Planet Fires,” for example, Will, the freed slave, seems to get shot point-blank by his white companion-of-the-road, Henry. Yet Will’s journey continues. Maybe the shooting was a dream, like Will’s vision of saving Honest Abe from being assassinated. Maybe the whole play is a dream. But whose?

The dog in “Sleeping Dogs” is a talking dog named Nana, who keeps alerting his owners to the presence of a ghost named Sling, a former protege of the crooked executive, Park. Sling’s ghost makes love to Park’s wife, and this seems to bring Park and his wife together. Meanwhile, Sling and Nana go off in the dark. Let the dead bury their dead?

Such questions can add to the allure of a play. Indeed, modern audiences have come to mistrust plays where everything adds up, because we know that life isn’t like that. On the other hand, it’s also possible to tire an audience with false leads and fancy language, to the point where it simply stops listening to the play, let alone caring how it comes out. That’s a risk with both these scripts.

“Planet Fires” needs to decide whether Will’s journey or Van Amburgh’s carnival is its major thrust, and to clarify the relationship between them. The welter of sideshow images and bragging language dazzles you but eventually satiates you, at which point you realize that you don’t know where you are in the play. It’s like trying to find a path by the light of a fireworks display.

“Sleeping Dogs” is, in contrast, underwritten. It assumes that the listener will pick up a psychological subtext that will explain why its characters are speaking and behaving in such a cryptic way. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, as in John Steppling’s “The Dream Coast.” They’ve got the words. They just use them oddly, almost as if they’re talking in code.

It’s a code the listener needs more help with--and the actor too. An example, from the stage directions: “Sally (the wife) realizes that Sling is gone for good.” Not an easy realization to make visible to the audience, without a line or two at least alluding to Sling.

Leigh Taylor-Young as Sally seemed to enjoy the challenge, however, as did Shanna Reed as the intelligent Nana, Michael McGuire as her corrupt master and Judd Nelson as the ghostly Sling. Nelson also played the bartender, confusing some in the audience as to whether the bartender was another emanation of Sling. Director Jody McAuliffe said no--it was “a Brechtian choice.”

“Planet Fires” had excellent work from Stephen Joyce as the ringmaster, Grand L. Bush as Will and Nelson again as Henry. The after-show discussion was enlivened by a discourse from Babe as to the merits of non-emotive theater, interrupted by a comment from the audience: “Why don’t you shut up, so we can tell you what we thought of your play?” No malaise there.

“In the Works ‘85” continues next week with a program of “micro-operas,” offered in conjunction with the New Music America Festival. Information at (213) 410-1062.

‘PLANET FIRES’ Thomas Babe’s play, presented by New Theatre for Now’s “In the Works ‘85” festival at the Mark Taper Forum. Director John Henry Davis. Set Dan Dryden. Costumes Susan Denison. Lighting Paulie Jenkins. Incidental music John Franceschina. Sound design Daniel Birnbaum. Fight choreography Greg Michaels. Dramaturg William Storm. Stage managers Mary Michele Miner and Mary E. Klinger. Assistant to the director Russell Bekins. With Stephen Joyce, Judd Nelson, Grand L. Bush, J.C. Quinn, Tom Henschel, Shanna Reed, Rob Miller.

‘SLEEPING DOGS’ Neal Bell’s play, also part of “In the Works ’85.” Director Jody McAuliffe. Set Dan Dryden. Costumes Ann Bruice. Lighting Paulie Jenkins. Sound Daniel Birnbaum. Dramaturg Jessica Teich. Stage managers Mary E. Klinger and Mary Michele Miner. Assistant to the director James Slowiak. With Michael McGuire, Judd Nelson, Leigh Taylor-Young, Shanna Reed, J.C. Quinn, Julie Payne and Stephen Joyce.