DECEMBER 23, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 21

EVENINGS OUT

An intellectual vaudeville with linguistic tap dancing

Slavs

by Tony Kushner

New York Theatre Workshop

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

Tony Kushner's new play, Slavs, which recently opened at the New York Theatre Workshop, is an intellectual comedy about socialism. It is as dazzling and dizzying

Brothers playing George Bernard Shaw. It is smart and silly: its leaps turn into deadly pratfalls.

Act II is set later the same day in the guards' chambers of the Pan-Soviet Archives for the Study of Cerebro-Cephalognomical Historico-Biological Materialism, which houses the brains of all the Soviet leaders. In it the political collides with the personal. Katherina, the guard, is a young woman, a

JOAN MARCUS

Dr. Bonfila Bonch-Bruevich and her lover Katherina, who guards the brains of Soviet leaders.

blend of Brecht and Ionesco with Kushner's distinctive fondness for combining serious discussion with low comedy routines and his taste for baroque metaphoric language.

Slavs does not have the epic scope of his Angels in America, but in its 11⁄2 hours Kushner manages to sketch in a basic overview of the history of Russian socialism-at least from a Westerner's perspective-and to his credit does this by creating a dramatically lively group of characters who embody a wide range of responses to socialism. Faced with the malicious delight that the West has generally taken with respect to the failure of the Great Soviet Experiment, Kushner's defense of the important human values that are the basis for socialist thought is both brave and daring.

The play begins with a prologue on the steps of the Hall of the Soviets in the Kremlin. Two colorfully dressed babushkas sweep snow-a comically Sisyphian task in Moscow-and discuss politics, setting the tone for this comedy of ideas. The first act moves into an anteroom in the Hall of the Soviets. It is March 1985, Gorbachev has succeeded to the post of general secretary, and the debates that will lead to perestroika in 1987 have begun. (The four scenes of this act were originally written for the second part of Angels in America, although only one was finally used in that play.)

The five men in this act represent various political positions. High-ranking Politboro members Smukov and Upgobkin are a pair of opposites. Smukov is a military man, stolid and pessimistic while Upgobkin, who looks like an absent-minded professor, is an optimist who believes that dialects can be transcended by the imagination and that humankind can make imaginative leaps. A second pair, two apparatchiks, are a Laurel and Hardy version of petty bureaucrats. Popolitipov, the older of the pair, is heavy-set and gross, while his protégé Rodent is a wiry mass of nervous energy. Prelapsarianov, the oldest living Bolshevik, delivers a passionate speech that revives the fervor and idealism of Lenin. The effect of this act is rather like the Marx

generation X type, whom Popolitipov has fallen in love with. He tries to force himself on her, acting the role of a disgusting male chauvinist pig. She rebuffs him, announcing she is a lesbian and has a girlfriend. The act concludes with a beautifully written scene between Katherina and her lover Dr. Bonfila Bonch-Bruevich.

Katherina is a streetwise, hard-drinking punk who can cite the socialist texts, but who dreams of being in a rock band. Bonfila, a pediatric oncologist, is an ardent socialist trying to maintain her values as the Soviet Union collapses. They are an odd but convincing match, and their love represents the fragile hope for a better world.

Kushner moves Act III forward to 1992. We are in Siberia where Bonfila has been exiled by the jealous Popolitipov. She is working with children who are dying of a congenital illness which seems to be the result of genetic mutation caused by their grandparents' exposure to nuclear testing. Rodent, now a government inspector, has been sent to investigate the problem. The act is dominated by the silent presence of one of the children, seated in a chair at the front of the stage. There is an interesting arc to this act which starts with a discourse on the destruction of the environment with nuclear waste, and ends with various statements of nationalist chauvinism that have been provoked by the splitting up of the Soviet Union.

The epilogue, set in heaven-a barren landscape high in the Ural Mountainsbrings together Prelapsarianov, Upgobkin, and the little girl from Act III. Upgobkin tells her a story about Lenin's favorite book, which, he notes, "asked the immortal question; which Lenin asked and in asking stood the world on its head; the question which challenges us to both contemplation and, if we love the world, to action; the question which implies: something is terribly wrong with the world, and avers: human beings can change it; the question asked by the living, and, apparently, by the fretful dead as well: What is to be done?"

Lisa Peterson has staged Slavs as an intellectual vaudeville with linguistic tap dancing, baggy pants clowns, and an occasional ballad to touch our hearts. She has perfectly captured Kushner's fabulous mixture of dialectics and classic theatrical buffoonery. The acting is uniformly excellent. Joseph Wiseman's radiant fervor as Prelapsarianov brought tears to my eyes. Marisa Tomei (Katherina) and Mary Shultz (Bonfila) wonderfully portrayed the intimacy and need of the lovers. Shultz is the real star of the production. Her Bonfila is the quiet, sad, resilient, loving and hopeful center of the play.

As you can tell from my summary, Slavs is more reflective than narrative. It is aptly subtitled Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness. It is an essay which uses the imagination to give body to issues and ideas and creates characters to give these ideas life. Unlike Angels in

America, Slavs does not focus on the politics of being gay. Interestingly, however, the only loving couple in the piece is a same-sex couple. And heterosexuality is represented by Popolitipov, a buffoon who views sex as a power struggle.

Throughout Slavs, Kushner uses as a kind of musical motif, the phrase: “It's the spiritual genius of the Slavs." The it is variously fantasy, sorrow, naivete, motherland, and the belief that good can be done. This last belief is expressed by Bonfila. At the end of Act III she says, "I still believe in good work, that there's good work to be done. Good hard

work." This statement seems to be the essence of Kushner's own optimism. In a world that seems to be moving towards chaos, Slavs takes a position which believes change can be made if we as individuals who are a part of a community-can ask the question that echoes in our ears as the curtain closes on the epilogue: "What is to be done?" ♡

Slavs is playing at the New York Theatre Workshop through January 15, TuesdaySaturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm and 7 pm. Reservations can be made by phoning the box office at 212-302-6989.

Cafe Tandoor

fine Indian Cusine

2096 South Taylor Rd. Cleveland Aleights, Ohio 44118 216/371-8500/8569 Fax: 216/371-8560 Reservations Recommended

Monday Saturday Lunch 11:30-2 pm.

Monday-Saturday Dimer 5.30–10 pmn.

Sunday 3-9 p.n.

FOR EXPERIENCED REPRESENTATION AND COMMITTED SERVICE

Judith A. Carlin, Esq. (216) 831-6161

Engaged in the General Practice of Law with Emphasis on: Health Care

Civil Rights

Zoning and Land Use Personal Injury Criminal

PLEASE CALL

Douglas K. Hyams, Esq. (216) 595-1003

Engaged in the General Practice

of Law with Emphasis on:

Real Estate

Small Business Organization Probate and Trusts Employment Law

Discrimination

Evening, Weekend & Home Appointments Available

Law Offices

27600 Chagrin Boulevard Suite 475 Beachwood, Ohio 44122

Gay Day Disney World

June 3, 1995

Package Starting at $300.00 p.p. Reserve Now, Pay Later. Deposit needed to Hold Space

Also Available

•Mardi Gras February '95

•Olivia Cruise ⚫RSVP

Provincetown •Hawaii & More!!

ADÉ TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL

510 Euclid Ave. Suite #1 Cleveland, Ohio 44115 216/771-5551 1-800-260-0887