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Monday, 14 July 2008
Scenes from an Execution
Scenes from an Execution by Howard Barker. Directed by
Richard Romagnoli. Original music by Peter Nilsson. Sound design by Ben
Schiffer. Lighting design by Laura J. Eckelman. Scenic design by Mark
Evancho. Costume design by Julie Emerson. With Jan Maxwell (Galactia),
David Barlow (Carpeta), Alex Draper (Urgentino), Patricia Buckley (Gina
Rivera), Timothy Deenihan (Ostensible), Peter Schmitz
(Prodo/Sordo/Man in Next Cell), Robert Zukerman (Suffici) and
Allison Corke (Sketchbook). Also with Lucy Faust, Justine Katzenbach,
Rachel Ann Cole, Will Damron, Jordon Tirrell-Wysocki and Willie Orbison.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes; one intermission. A presentation of the
Potomac
Theatre Project. Reviewed at the 9 July 2008 performance. At The
Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street, New York, 1-26 July 2008. Ticket
and schedule information at Ticket Central.
Making art in Renaissance Venice and the 21st century Western
world in Howard Barker's contemporary classic, in a brilliant production
with Jan Maxwell by the Potomac Theatre Project
Peter Schmitz and Jan Maxwell
in Scenes from
an Execution
(Photo: Stan Barouh)
Anna Galactia (not unlike the historical Artemisia Gentileschi) is a middle-aged woman, a
brilliant and stubborn sensualist and the greatest painter of Renaissance
Venice. Commissioned by the state of Venice through Urgentino, the Doge,
to commemorate the Battle of Lepanto, Galactia determines instead to
depict the suffering of the soldiers in battle and the commanders'
indifference to that suffering. Needless to say the Doge (as well as the
Church and the Military, whose interests the Doge must juggle for the
continued health of the democracy) is not pleased, though the work itself
is unutterably powerful. Galactia fully expects to see the painting burned
and herself martyred for her intransigence, but she gets neither:
ultimately, the painting is displayed for all the public to see and
becomes a great popular success; applause is rendered to the government
for its humanistic and democratic open-mindedness; and Galactia
becomes a celebrity, welcome at the tables of Venice's most rich and
powerful representatives.
Scenes from an Execution, originally written in 1985 as a radio
play and adapted for the stage a few years later, is Howard Barker's most
popular and most frequently-revived play; though it's not his best
play of that period (that designation belongs more to The Castle,
his first formal tragedy, or Victory), it is nonetheless an
accessible, often very funny and terrifically entertaining evening. The
energetic production directed by Richard Romagnoli (an associate of
Barker's Wrestling School) for the Potomac Stage Project,
running here through 26 July, is fortunate to have Jan Maxwell for its
Galactia. Seizing on the character's arrogance and headstrong will,
Maxwell owns the play throughout.
As Galactia's personal faults become more and more evident,
she is more and more at the mercy of the Doge (Alex Draper), an
immeasurably better politician who nonetheless is a genuine
connoisseur of the painter and her work. At the end of the play,
explaining the decision to exhibit the work, he says:
To have lost such a canvas would have been an offence against the
artistic primacy of Venice. To have said this work could not be
absorbed by the spirit of the Republic would be to belittle the
Republic, and our barbarian neighbors would have jeered at us. So we
absorb all, and in absorbing it we show our greater majesty. It offends
today, but we look harder and we know, it will not offend tomorrow. We
force the canvas and the stretcher down the gagging throat, and coughing a
little, and spluttering a little, we find, on digestion, it nourishes us!
There will be no art outside. Only art inside.
It is this idea of absorption into the community that renders the art
powerless to offend, as well as powerless to change the community or the
world. (And Galactia's status as a woman in Venice helps this along. "If
it had been painted by a man it would have been an indictment of the war,
but as it is, painted by the most promiscuous female within a hundred
miles of the Lagoon, I think we are entitled to a different speculation,"
another painter says.) Though it might be easy to leave the Doge with the
last word of the play, it belongs as it should to Galactia, whose "Yes"
leads her to an honored seat at the table of the powers that first sought
to suppress the painting and punish the artist.
Barker denies closure to the issues he raises: these are questions,
this is the situation of the artist who accepts patronage and the
democratic community which seeks to recognise her in promoting its own
self-validation and self-congratulation, and there we have it. Romagnoli's
spare production sharpens the focus of the conflict; we never see
Galactia's work (indeed, we don't even get to see her sketch; Maxwell's
hand as it travels over her sketchpad holds no pencil). We see only the
artist and her condition.
Maxwell is a powerful, energetic and sensuous Galactia, who leads her
younger lover, Carpeta (a comically effective David Barlow, who may as
well physically wrap himself around Maxwell's little finger), like a puppy
on a leash; a good lover, not even he can contain her arrogance and
stubbornness. With loose hair flying in all directions, loose clothing
draping over her body's curves and little make-up on her
sharp-featured face, Maxwell is not afraid of being disliked, of
refusing the audience's sympathies. Her performance is matched by Alex
Draper as the Doge, supercilious but emotionally rich and engaged. Among
the rest of the ensemble cast, Peter Schmitz must also be mentioned –
as a victim of the battle who learns from Galactia that there's more than
one way to exploit one's own suffering for cash, he delivers a
delightfully memorable performance.
The day-job beckons so I can write little more right now (much as
I would like to), except to urge you to see Scenes from an
Execution before it closes, all too soon, on 26 July. Artists (as well
as Urgentino-like arts administrators) will all find something to
turn towards themselves in Barker's coruscating self-criticism; for
the audience, it's a peek into the deepest recesses of the kitchen, as
well as their own responses to demanding work. (At the end of the play, a
character describes the reactions of the Venetian public to Galactia's
painting. "It is [at] the other end, the exit, you should listen," he
tells Galactia as they watch the visitors to the gallery. "Some have
catalogues, but most can't read. The ones who can't read gasp, the ones
with catalogues go 'mmm.' So it's either gasp or mmm, take yer pick.")
This creates an admirable bookend to the PTP's previous production in New
York, last season's staging of Barker's other
portrait-of-the-artist play, No End of Blame. Next summer, I hope we can
look forward to one of Barker's tragedies – perhaps the
aforementioned The Castle, or his most remarkable recent work,
Gertrude –The Cry. But for now, get yourself to West 16th
Street for some of the best theatre of the year.
Posted at 9.33 am in /Notices
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