New
York has more than its share of weird little
shows that no one quite gets. Target Margin Theater’s
production of The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of
Arc is above the standard, because it is well
executed and has a clear purpose, but is still kind
of...well, weird.
Written in 1912 by a
Joan-obsessed philosopher-poet named Charles Péguy, the
play consists entirely of three French peasant women
arguing (in verse!) and sounds more like a sermon or a
lecture on theology than what we would generally call
theatre. Well what do you expect? It’s French.
The relevance of Péguy’s theological musings
about sin and sainthood to today’s political and moral
quagmires is undeniable, and interesting to contemplate,
but Target Margin's attempt to present these ideas to a
modern audience collapses under its own conceits.
Director David Herskovits settles on an approach
reminiscent of late-eighteenth century European
symbolist theater: highly stylized acting, slow and
unearthly speech patterns, gradually evolving light cues
and ethereal mood music conspire to create a dreamlike
atmosphere, a transcendant world in which the characters
exist, divorced from a sense of rational time.
The show is stylishly done. Lenore Doxsee’s
minimalist set, though clearly low-rent, is quite
beautiful, and cleverly put together. Mark Barton’s
lighting and Tim Schellenbaum’s sound get almost the
right blend of dreamy and striking. Only the costumes
detract from the effect – they’re muddy-looking, and
freighted with lack of meaning.
If the intent
was to emulate the symbolist aesthetic, the show is dead
on - but why would anyone want to? There was a reason
symbolist theater never caught on. It’s really boring.
Performing Péguy’s dramatically-challenged theological
musings in Herskovits' white-walled stoner’s paradise
virtually guarantees that at some point the audience
will drift off into a dream world of their own, no
matter how interesting the ideas are.
Which is
really too bad.
All three actresses give lovely
performances. Sophia Skiles, as Joan, brings a richness
to the text even through its stylization. Jerusha
Klemperer, as the peasant girl Hauviette, adeptly finds
the moments of humor and lightness in the play's bleak
scenes. And Daphne Gaines, as the Franciscan nun Madame
Gervaise, has the emotional richness to make her
character's faith truly touching.
The three
women these actresses create are so real that for much
of the play you wish they could shrug off their
carefully modulated dramatic conceits and act like
people. You want to see them arguing over the stove as
they prepare for dinner, or debating their faith across
the kitchen table with the TV droning war in the
background.
Target Margin Theater is “founded on
the principle that works of art return us more
powerfully to real truths by their divergence from a
strict illustration of reality.” It is a great idea, but
it’s just not flying with this text – and certainly not
if the producers, as their publicity indicates, wish to
link the story with current events.
To make the
ideas in Joan of Arc approachable would require
creating characters and situations that an audience
could grasp and relate to viscerally, as well as
intellectually. Well done as many of its elements are,
Joan of Arc only distances the audience and
deepens the mystery. | |
HERE
Mainstage |
Category:
Experimental
Written by: by Charles
Peguy, Translated by Julian Green
Directed
by: David Herskovits
Produced
by: Target Margin
Theater
Opens: May
5
Closes: June 6
Running
Time: 1 hr 15
mins.
Theater: HERE
Mainstage
Address: 145 6th Ave
(soho)
New York, NY 10013
Mapquest Directions
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Tickets: $20.00
$15.00
w/ Valid Student I.D. $3.00 off a single ticket with use
of the following code: OOO17
Phone:
212-647-0202
Online Ticketing:
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Creative TeamWritten
by: Charles Péguy
Translator:
Julian Green
Directed by: David
Herskovits
Produced by: Target Margin
Theater
Light Designer: Mark
Barton
Sound Designer: Tim
Schellenbaum
Set Designer: Lenore
Doxsee
Costume Designer: David
Zinn
CastDaphne Gaines as Madame
Gervaise
Jerusha Klemperer as Hauviette
Sophia
Skiles as Jeanette | |
