[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Son of Semele and The Victory Theatre Center’s world premiere of Crevasse by Tom Jacobson running through August 18.
I’ve been reviewing plays for years now and it’s not often that I feel at a loss for words. Crevasse has me utterly stumped. How can I possibly describe effectively a play so wildly perfect with actors so good that they seem to have invented these characters on the spot, every word they speak feeling like their own innermost thoughts? It’s impossible, but it’s my job to give you an idea and some kind of understanding of what I see and to hopefully encourage you to buy a ticket and spend a couple of hours in a theatre and to be moved, so here goes!
The brilliant playwright Tom Jacobson’s latest play, Crevasse, opens at the Victory Theatre as a co-production with Son of Semele. The play revolves around the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and her untimely visit to the US just before the war began in 1938. She brought a friend and film critic with her as a press secretary to help her line up meetings with Hollywood studios, which he did through his contacts. However, once they arrived in L.A., there was a sudden escalation in Nazi activity in Germany and notice was taken all around the globe and the meetings were summarily canceled. It didn’t help that Rienfenstahl was rumored to be a lover of Hitler’s and also that she made no secret of her ambitions. Or probably that she was a woman…
She was furious of course, and even though she had promised to protect her film critic’s Jewish wife and son from the Nazis in Germany, she told him he was on his own. Something that destroyed him and his marriage. The only one who would see her was Disney. He was a huge admirer of her visionary work as a director and used a good deal of her iconic imagery in his own films, something that has not gone unnoticed. It is this meeting that becomes the center of the play and the remarkable parallels between the two of them as they discuss their work and he walks her through the early magical Disney studio. It’s truly riveting to watch them parry and flirt as it becomes more and more obvious that Disney could never openly help her.
There are only two actors playing these several roles and the stage is set with walls that pivot and beautiful projected images giving the entire play a dreamlike quality. As these brilliant actors morph from one character to the next we watch them transform on stage, almost literally, and it is truly astonishing.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this play over the past few days since seeing it on Friday. The fact that it has stayed with me so long and in such a deep and resonating way speaks to the brilliance of the writing and the incredible performances these two fine actors have created. There is a nuance and a candor to them that really belies description. How is it possible for a person to so totally dissolve into a character that when they become another in front of your very eyes they seem to be two completely separate entities? They are both utterly mesmerising in all their roles. The entire play is told in one act, a marathon of movement, monologue, mannerisms and mania and I cannot imagine it being constructed in any other way. Disney was ambiguous at best in his alignments and Rienfenstahl was a genius but she was also very much a Nazi herself. She believed in Hitler. She extolled his virtues in fact and it is now more than ever that we need to be reminded that it takes very little sometimes to justify fascism when it can offer you everything you have ever desired.
It’s not an exaggeration when I tell you that Crevasse is one of the finest plays I have seen. In L.A. or anywhere else. It is absolutely extraordinary in fact, and Leo Marks and Ann Nobel are phenomenal. I don’t think I even took a single breath through the entire play. I was that caught up in the story. What a strange and compelling subject to write a play about. Fascism, art, ambition and betrayal. Rienfenstahl was a genius, a woman ahead of her time and devastated by her rejection by the one place she wanted to conquer. Disney was so close to engineering a way to work with her. But ultimately he was too beholden to the studio heads. He knew it would destroy his own ambitions to even view her film in his own studio. I wonder what would have happened if he had?
The telling of this particular piece of history gives us a fascinating lens through which we might see ourselves, which is the point of all art in the end. Crevasse unfolds so beautifully and so grotesquely, reflecting both sides of ourselves perhaps. A reminder of who we all are, or who we all could be at least, it’s all sliding doors in the end isn’t it? What an incredible play. Absolutely the very best theatre I have seen in a very long time…and I am privileged to see so many fine plays.
Crevasse is an astonishingly beautiful and incredibly clever play and one that you absolutely must see….please, please don’t miss this!!!
When:
Through August 18
Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 4PM
Where:
The Victory Theatre Center
3326 W Victory Blvd., Burbank
Ticket:
The Cast
Starring Leo Marks and Ann Noble
The Team
Written by Tom Jacobson
Directed by Matthew McCray
Set Design Evan Bartoletti
Lighting Design Azra King-Abadi
Costume Design Michael Mullen
Sound Design John Zalewski
Produced by Maria Gobetti and Matthew McCray