Review: Regarding the Just (Trap Door Theatre)

By Chicagotheaterbeat @chitheaterbeat

  
  
Regarding the Just

Translated and Adapted by Pascal Collin
   and Nicolas Le Guével 
Directed by Valéry Warnotte
Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland (map)
thru July 5  |  tickets: $10-$20   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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An essential meditation on the justness of armed conflict

     

  

Trap Door Theatre presents

  

Regarding the Just

Review by John Olson

Revolution and political assassination aren’t concepts normally considered in shades of gray, but rather in terms of black and white and right and wrong. This adaptation of the play Les Justes by Albert Camus is based on true events in 1905 in which Russian revolutionaries assassinated the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Governor of Moscow and son, brother or uncle of three Tsars. It considers the question of whether the revolutionaries can be absolutely certain of the justness of their cause and, in the early scenes of the play, some of the insurgents planning the attack are shown to have doubts of its morality. One of them, Yanek (Antonio Brunetti), fails in his first attempt at assassination because he believes he would also have killed the Grand Duke’s nephew and niece had he thrown the bomb as planned. He begins to see their target as a fellow human, and finds commonality with him in spite of the Duke’s far greater power and privilege. After the others remind Yanek of the “justness” of the cause, he returns to his task and on a second attempt finishes the job.

Trap Door’s original translation keeps the story in 1905, maintaining the characters from Camus’ play, of which all but one were based on historical figures. Working from a script by cast member Pascal Collin and Nicolas Le Guével, director Valéry Warnotte gives the piece a modern sensibility, with the actors doubling as a rock band of sorts, playing original music by Nicholas Tonozzi and performing on a set by Joanna Iwanicka that suggests a back alley warehouse adorned with political slogan graffiti. The parallels to today’s political violence (and by “today,” I really mean “today” – looking at the sectarian violence underway in Iraq) are unmistakable even with the historical nature of the plot.

Warnotte stages the action in a very urgent, presentational style, but one that still allows for nuanced character development by the strong cast. Brunetti is a convincingly conflicted assassin and his performance garners our sympathy and thus attention to Camus’ challenge to reconsider the concept of absolute justness. Yanek’s lover, Dora, is committed to the cause but also tormented by the knowledge that their planned assassination will certainly end with the death of her man. Nicole Wiesner shows all the appropriate shades of emotion in this woman torn between fidelity to her cause and her personal happiness. Michael Garvey plays their leader, Boris, who is willing to commit the assassination himself and protect Yanek but who is bound to stay behind to provide continuity for the cause. In contrast, there’s the revolutionary Stepan (Alžan Pelesić), who sees the struggle completely in terms of right and wrong and Pelesić gives a frightening face to his absolutism. David A. Holcombe is the youngest of the group, a sensitive sort who flees this violent cabal to serve the revolution from a safer distance.

The incessant urgency of all these risks can become tiresome over the show’s hour and forty minutes, but it’s saved by not only the very human and nuanced portrayals of the revolutionaries, but also by some clever comic relief. Co-author Collin plays the amoral Skoronov, a police official who offers Yanek a chance to save his own life if he will deny any political motivation to his killing of the Duke. Beata Pilch is the Grand Duchess – a comical but not buffoonish new widow who tries to convince Yanek to take Skoronov’s offer. In her short scene with Yanek, we’re shown the parallels between Yanek and Dora’s relationship to that of the Duke and Duchess – two loving couples, each separated by political violence.

Regarding the Just, in its concise, muscular way is an engaging morality play. An historical story seen through the humanist philosophy of a great 20th Century writer, it’s an intensely relevant play for these times in which an escalation of war is occurring.

  

Rating: ★★★

  

  

Regarding the Just continues through July 5th at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays 3pm.  Tickets are $10-$20, and are available by phone (773-384-0494) or online through TicketLeap.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at TrapDoorTheatre.com.  (Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes, no intermission)

Photos by Heather Stumpf

     

artists

cast

Nicole Wiesner (Dora Doublebov), Michael Garvey (Boris Annenkov), Alžan Pelesić (Stepan Fedorov), David A. Holcombe (Alexia Voinov), Antonio Brunetti (Yanek Kaliayev), Beata Pilch (Grand Duchess), Pascal Collin (Skouratov).

behind the scenes

Valéry Warnotte (director), Mitch De Mooij (assistant director), Pascal Collin (dramaturg), Allison Goetzman (stage manager), Rachel Sypniewski (costume designer), Joanna Iwanicka (set design construction), Richard Norwood (lighting designer), Nicholas Tonozzi (music director, composer), Catherine Woods (makeup designer), Tiffany Bedwell (dialect coach), Heather Stumpf (photos)

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