Sean Power - Reviews & Interviews

The Threepenny Epic Cabaret
2 May 1996 - eye:
"ONSTAGE: Brecht Wishes" (by Laura Kosterski)

ONSTAGE

Brecht wishes

THE THREEPENNY EPIC CABARET
Featuring Kristen Thomson, Bob Wiseman and Sean Power.
Written by Stan Rogal and Bald Ego Theatre.
Directed by Adam Nashman.
Theatre Posse Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson Ave.

Three weeks to opening night and the play hasn't even been written yet. This is the dilemma of Stan Rogal's Threepenny Epic Cabaret - a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Brecht/Weill classic.

Weaving historical fact, theory and fiction, Rogal crafts a funny, educational, meta-theatrical cabaret that depicts the sex, booze and chaos at the heart of the creative process. Director Adam Nashman packs each scene with cleverly choreographed, detailed disorder. In one magical scene, for example, a Ph.D. student of theatre (an unexplained visitor from the '90s) describes the elements of Brecht's epic theatre (half curtain, exposed lights, etc.) as those elements appear.

In addition to the delightful physical mayhem, Rogal pokes fun at a number of ideas, from academic revisionism to the media's desire for quick, consumable explanations. He also portrays Brecht as both a fraud and a genius (we learn anecdotally that Brecht reads pulp fiction covered with a Das Kapital dust jacket.) Among the cast, Kristen Johnson is particularly wonderful as Helene Wiegel, the self-important thespian/ham. Johnson steals every scene with her precise and focused physical comedy.

My only serious quibble is that structurally, the show could have been framed better. Initially, the story is set up by the three-week-to-opening deadline, but then, out of the blue, three unrelated figures from the future show up to experience the situation. Because Rogal makes no attempt to explain their presence (is this time travel, a dream?) their initial appearance is a bit disorienting.

Only the Ph.D. student has a legitimate reason for being there - to study Brecht and to serve as Rogal's cheeky metaphor for academic intrusiveness. But her two cohorts, an effeminate photojournalist and a sex-crazed "groupie," just sort of float around the stage with vague agendas of their own.

Yet despite this, Rogal's play is pretty damn good. At one point Brecht exclaims "it doesn't matter what you borrow, it's what you do with it." The Threepenny Epic Cabaret is a successful reminder (both in style and content) of the magic and freshness that can come from skilful appropriation.

- LAURA KOSTERSKI