A Deafeningly Bad Rendition of ‘Drums’

Sledgehammer Theatre has a knack for taking drama to an extreme. In 1989, the company presented a wildly obscene and violent staging of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Pre-Paradise, Sorry Now” in an old warehouse downtown.

In 1990, the company mounted a marathon, five-hour production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” a play usually presented in three hours or less.

Both productions pushed the theatrical experience beyond its conventional limits but still managed to augment aspects of the original script.

With its current presentation of Bertolt Brecht’s 1922 “Drums in the Night,” however, the iconoclast troupe has gone too far. Artistic Director Scott Feldsher’s theatrical concepts have intruded upon Brecht’s script to such a degree that chaos and an unintelligible clamor dominate the Sixth Avenue Playhouse stage. This production does not illuminate “Drums in the Night” but instead enshrouds Brecht’s play in a dark cloud of reckless experimentation.

“Drums in the Night” is set in Germany and depicts the homecoming of World War I veteran Andreas Kragler (Bruce McKenzie). Kragler returns from combat and finds that his fiancee, Anna (Susan Gelman), has been seduced by Murk (Walter Murray), a businessman. Discouraged and abandoned, Kragler turns to the streets and eventually joins up with a group of Spartacist revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the government.

After a series of riot scenes, Kragler decides to abandon the revolutionaries to reunite with Anna. Kragler realizes that his decision is selfish and a further sign of societal decay, but he persists. The play ends on an acerbic note--Kragler and Anna kiss, an act that symbolizes Kragler’s opting for love over political involvement.

Brecht’s condemnation of Kragler’s behavior is thorough, but in this ragged production, little social satire survives. Instead, the audience is bombarded with sound effects, multimedia projections and silly, sophomoric comedy bits that distract and detract from the play.

The most telling evidence of Feldsher’s intrusive direction lies in his collaboration with sound designer Pea Hicks. The play begins with a single gunshot, a thunderous roar that left ears ringing long after the three-hour play was over. Additional gun bursts explode to signal transitions between scenes, thoroughly irritating the near-capacity audience of about 150.

Also, a stagehand pounds a meat cleaver onto a chopping board every few seconds throughout most of the show. The repetitive, amplified thuds drown out important bits of onstage dialogue and eclipse the audience’s ability to follow the action. Feldsher evidently incorporated this effect to establish the presence of the drumbeating rebels. In Feldsher’s staging, meat cleaver strokes apparently represent drumbeats. Unfortunately, Feldsher’s directorial invention supersedes the subtler nuances of the production.

Feldsher laces the early moments of the play with sophomoric slapstick jokes. One character breaks wind, the others squint in disgust. Another character tries to sit in a chair only to find his seat pulled out from under him. The routines are embarrassing and unfunny. The opening-night audience did not laugh at most of the displays.

Despite the production’s problems, some of the performances are quite adept.

As the war hero, McKenzie accomplishes more with a glance than the loudest sound effects could muster. McKenzie hobbles expertly about the stage on a false wooden leg during the show, and when an occasional silence allows him to communicate with the audience, the play comes to life.

As the onstage character and off-stage commentator B. B., Todd O’Keefe blends a sharp wit with good timing to produce sporadic laughter.

Gelman’s Anna doesn’t get to say much, but the actress creates a consistent character through posture and facial expression.

Robert Brill’s set design once again steals the Sledgehammer show. Brill created vastly disparate scenarios for this production, including a tiny, claustrophobic kitchen and a convincingly militaristic street scene. Brill also drapes striking orange-and-white propaganda posters along theater walls, creating a powerful visual effect.

Brecht initiated the concept of theatrical alienation. By using such devices as masks, placards and captions, Brecht sought to encourage the audience’s intellectual involvement in a given play, and to discourage the audience’s emotional attachment to characters and situations.

With “Drums in the Night,” Feldsher embraces Brecht’s alienation technique to an irresponsible extreme. Feldsher successfully prevents the audience from becoming emotionally involved, but he also aggravates and annoys them on a physical level.

His staging did not instill audiences with an intellectual involvement, but rather an intense desire to walk out.

“DRUMS IN THE NIGHT”

By Bertolt Brecht. Director is Scott Feldsher. Choreographer is Christina Sibul. Sets and lights by Robert Brill. Costumes by Jennifer Graffam. Sound by Pea Hicks. Stage managers are Steven Soden and Lisa Noelle Stone. At 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, through July 7. Tickets are $7.50-$12.50. At the Sixth Avenue Playhouse, 1260 6th Ave., downtown. 235-8025.