Waiting for Lefty
Written by Clifford Odets
Directed by Kimberly Senior
Victory Gardens’ R. Christiansen Theater (map)
thru Oct 2 | tickets: $25 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Come prepared for a riveting, deeply felt revival
American Blues Theater presents
Waiting for Lefty
Review by Lawrence Bommer
“We’ve been kicked around so much we’re black and blue from head to toes.” (So is that why they were called “Reds”?) The moment you enter the theater you’re in an "us" against "them" situation: the audience, strangers intent on effacing themselves in the dark, are literally opposed to the actors, extroverted creatures from the Dressing Room Beyond who intend to play make-believe for the highest stakes. Most plays work to make us forget we’re "us" (otherwise known as the suspension of disbelief). But, out of a sort of teaching theater inspired by Bertolt Brecht, a few want to break across that footlight barrier to forge a larger tribal or radical "us." The results, as with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, are often dismissed as heavy-handed agitprop. Still, if you feel, however temporarily, that you’re part of a new and better "us," there’s always the hope you can make that solidarity outlast the play.
Interestingly, despite his naturalistic approach, Odets structured the play after an old-fashioned minstrel show–with a turbulent chorus (cabbies and their loved ones), specialty men like Mr. Bones (the strike committeemen who, in separate vignettes, demonstrate crucial moments in their lives that brought them to this desperate step), and the abrasive Mr. Interlocutor (cigar-chomping Harry Fatt, supposedly a worker but really a stooge and devil’s advocate for the bosses).
So does this proletarian protest play still pack a punch? A lot depends on environment. In 1979, when the Steppenwolf ensemble produced ”Lefty” at the Apollo Theatre, the surroundings were too plush for the story and the very un-intimate gap between a too-separate stage and a too-large house was more than the best actors could bridge. The "us" and the "them" never met.
It’s radically different with this power-packed, deeply felt offering by the American Blues Theater. Like the classroom in Miss Margarida’s Way, the setting for “Lefty,” a dingy union hall/schoolroom (bare stage) with period posters on the walls is the real McCoy: We’re “in it” with the workers. But, beyond setting, what remains as current as an electric storm is the consistent (nobody breaks character here) commitment of everything about this riveting revival, a production worthy of the original Group Theatre effort. (Besides, not just a solid piece of heartfelt Americana, this A.B.T. “Lefty” can never be dated, with so many unemployed and the war against unions as intense as it ever was 75 years ago).
As the meeting gathers steam, the union boys share with audience members their confusion over why their chairman, Lefty Costello, is late for a crucial strike meeting. Screaming above the hubbub, company rat Harry Fatt (a snarling and infectiously hateful Terry Hamilton) yells how this is no time for a strike with the President on their side and strike-breakers eager for their jobs.
Reacting to his taunts, the workers launch into six half-flashbacks, half-sermons to show how little choice they have. A lab assistant refuses a bribe to serve as a company spy in a factory that’s busily making poison gas for the next war. A bedraggled salesclerk and her hack boyfriend finally admit that the "cards are stacked against us" and they’ve been "kept in the dark" long enough; to prove they’re ”not life’s patsies,” they better make it to the meeting. Enraged to discover that the venal producer who turns him down for a part shows more compassion for his sick Russian wolfhound than for needy talent, a young, desperate-to-work actor finds solace in the Communist Manifesto. Anti-semitism, professional nepotism, and flagrant neglect of the poor force an idealistic, German emigre doctor to quit the profession until socialized medicine makes it worth doing. (Boy, will he have a long wait!) And during the meeting a supposed witness to a failed strike in Philadelphia is exposed as a black-leg spy by his own brother.
 
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The episodes explode right on cue, never sagging from the very Method pioneered by the Group Theatre. Throbbing pauses and a throaty, internalized delivery could have reduced this to dated melodrama. But director Kimberly Senior never forgets that these moments were meant to be seen by a crowd that’s meant to be converted.
But in the episode, "Joe and Edna," where this staging finds that happy blend, wonders happen. Easily reason enough to see this show, this terrific scene depicts the confrontation between a worn-out wife (Rinska Carrasco-Amazing), who’s sick of putting her kids ("little ghosts") to bed early so they’ll forget they haven’t eaten and keeping them from school because they can’t afford shoes, and her cabbie husband (Derek Gaspar) who’s afraid to lose his $6 a week for the sake of a strike. The unforced fury of their fight surges from well-targeted, awesomely authentic Chicago acting. Judging from what she brings to this stage, Carrasco-Amazing must have dug up every sorrow she ever endured and trebled the effect. Gaspar takes Joe’s rage against admitting he knows Edna is right and his terror that she’ll leave him and makes them so human it hurts.
With the inevitability of a thundercloud, this hour-long “Lefty” builds to the strike call, an unforgettable moment of incendiary theater. Like Godot, Lefty doesn’t show up; the reason why triggers a firestorm. Agate Keller, the final strident agitator (an electrifying Warren Levon), hurls out the challenge of "slow death or fight": "WE’RE STORMBIRDS OF THE WORKING CLASS…OUR BONES AND BLOOD! And when we die they’ll know what we did to make a new world! Christ, cut us up to little pieces. We’ll die for what is right! Put fruit trees where our ashes are!"
In 2011, when labor unions have never been more imperiled (sometimes from their own short-sighted agenda, but also from government-induced union-busting and Tea Party-selfish), blue collar sell-outs have smugly forgotten the struggles of the 30s, this hit-the-barricades eloquence is still a hell of a challenge. Both theatrically and politically, Odets’ "them" is still "us."
Rating: ★★★★
American Blues Theater’s Waiting for Lefty continues through October 2nd at Victory Gardens’ Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln (map), with performances Thursdays-Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 5pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 2:30pm. Tickets are $25, and can be purchased by phone (773-871-3000) or online. More information at AmericanBluesTheater.com.
Special events and post-show discussions (more info):
- - Fridays, Sept. 16, 23, 30 RIPPED: the Living Newspaper Project.
- - Sunday, Sept. 11 Town Hall: “Odets & WPA”
- Sunday, Sept. 18 Town Hall: “Artists & Unions”
- Sunday, Sept. 25 Town Hall: “Labor History in Chicago”
- Sunday, Oct. 2 Town Hall: “Union Relevancy Now” debate
All photos by Johnny Knight
artists
cast
Manny Buckley*, Sarah Burnham*, John Byrnes, Rinska Carrasco-Amazing, Derek Gaspar, Cheryl Graeff*, Terry Hamilton, Zachary Kenney, Warren Levon*, Bradford R. Lund, Mechelle Moe, John Mohrlein*, Suzanne Petri*, Andrew Swanson, and Gwendolyn Whiteside*
behind the scenes
Kimberly Senior (director), Jonathan Nook (stage manager), Jack Magaw (scenic), Heather Gilbert (lighting), Samantha C. Jones* & Elizabeth Flauto (costumes), Victoria DeIorio (sound), Sarah Burnham* (properties), Chris Rickett (fight director), Kelli Marino* (dramaturg), Kayla Anderson (assistant director), Kortney Kwong Hing (assistant dramaturg), Johnny Knight (photos)
