GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE October 22, 2004

eve

STEVE WAGNER

Devil in America

Before Angels,' the Beast romped in Europe. Now he's back

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland-Long before angels were giving visions to gay men in the United States, the devil was busy across the ocean in Germany, watching as the Weimar Republic came toppling down around him with the rise of the Nazi Party.

Before Tony Kushner penned his magnum opus Angels in America, a condemnation of the reaction of the government and the American people to AIDS, he wrote A Bright Room Called Day, his condemnation of the second Reagan inauguration. It's now playing at Cleveland Public Theater.

In the earlier play, Kushner draws parallels between the events of 70 years ago and the mid-1980s. Little did he realize how much worse the situation would be another twenty years on.

Or perhaps he did.

The play takes place in two eras. The Weimar events are pretty much set in stone, but Kushner gave permission and some assistance to updating the later segues to the present day. In these, a paranoid conspiracy theorist named Zillah speaks directly to the audience about her mistrust of the government, or about visitations in dreams from a desperate soul she saw in a book. Sometimes she just sits there, reading, while her radio plays news reports on the fascistic overthrow of American democracy.

"The Weimar Republic had a constitution," she tells the audience, countering the argument that "It can't happen here."

Zillah is portrayed by Alison Hernan, who serves double duty on the play since she is the costume designer as well. Hernan is also currently directing Othello at Cleveland Public's new venue, Orthodox.

As Zillah, Hernan is almost completely unrecognizable; her usual playful demeanor completely submerged beneath manic intensity and diamond-hard edges. While she sits and reads silently, the actions of those past decades goes on behind her on a set right out of a German Expressionist film, all odd angles and strange slopes.

A motley crew of friends, all of the "artis-

tic" variety, meet in an apartment in Berlin. The first the audience sees of them, it is New Year's Eve. As the clock ticks over to 1932, Baz, Paulinka, Annabella and Husz celebrate in Anges' apartment.

Baz, a gay man working for Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexual Science, is enjoying life, making the most of the sexual freedom offered under the Weimar Republic. Paulinka and Agnes are both film actresses, although Paulinka is a star and Agnes a character actor. Husz, Agnes' lover, is a one-eyed cameraman who lost his other eye bringing Communism to the world, and Annabella uses her skills as a painter to spread socialism to the masses.

As events go by in their lives, the Nazis rise

to power. Bickering between the Social Democrats and the Communist Party allows Hitler to be elected chancellor. People worry about the fascists, but surely in a democratic society, one little man with a paintbrush mustache cannot do too much damage, can he?

Until it's too late.

The devil walks in Berlin, Husz knows. His ancestral village in the Carpathians is a favorite place of the devil, and he has a special fondness for its residents. Husz calls him and he comes, sounding suspiciously like James Mason at times. The devil has adapted to the age in which he lives, and finds that he really does enjoy Berlin.

The fascists burn the Reichstag, the legislature. They take over the film industry, putting it under the control of a government office. Both Paulinka and Agnes are given the choice of working on pro-fascist films, or not working in film at all. Husz is badly beaten by a trio of Nazi thugs. The Institute is closed, Baz is arrested. Eventually, everyone leaves except

Zillah, played by Alison Hernan, provides a link between current events and the rise of Adolph Hitler's Nazi Party in the 1930s in Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day.

Agnes, who is faced with Die Alte, the old woman who might be a ghost from the past, or the from the future. Or perhaps she is just an old woman with a penchant for entering and exiting through windows.

Kushner's original work is powerful and thought-provoking, occasionally even bringing a tear to the eye. The modernization of Zillah's framing sequences are more terrifying than perhaps anything else in the piece, truly defining just how bad things are now, and how much worse they can get.

Perhaps the only bad thing about this play is trying to pick out individuals from the ensemble cast to praise above others. The pure skill evident on that stage was dazzling.

Jill Levin gave a moving portrayal of Agnes, a woman fraying around the edges like a rapidly-disintegrating sweater. Tracee Patterson as Paulinka was a sight, the incarnation of a 1930s movie star using opium to keep from falling apart.

Randy Rollison as Husz is marvelous. The man has more hats than Imelda Marcos had shoes, being artistic and executive director of Cleveland Public Theater as well, but still turns in a thunderous performance.

Many was the dream had about Michael Seevers, Jr. after Cleveland Public's run of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Now he is living a nightmare as Baz, exemplifying the highs

and lows of being gay in a time when one minute, it was free and fun, and the next, it warranted the death penalty.

Holly Holsinger's Annabella has an intensity to her that makes the character always seem to be on the verge of doing something shocking, perhaps a glint in the eye or a tension in the hands. It's subtle, but it's there. She's reminiscent of Harriet Sansom Harris from Frasier and It's All Relative.

The devil, by the way, is now known as Gottfried Swetts, portrayed by Charles F. Kartali, who really is most dashing, yet menacing, on stage. The cast is rounded out by Bernice Bolek as Die Alte, proving Bolek's skill as a character actor, and Gregory Vovos and Elizabeth R. Wood as two Communist operatives watching their party's downfall in Germany.

On the eve of a U.S. election that, should it go poorly, could spell the end of constitutional protections as they are known now, A Bright Room Called Day is even more relevant that it was in early 1985. It is a piece that needs to be seen.

A Bright Room Called Day plays at 7:30 pm on Thursdays, 8 pm Friday and Saturday, and 3 pm on Sunday, October 24. The play runs through October 30. For tickets or information, call 216-631-2727, or log onto www.cptonline.org.

Dykes ToWatch Out For by Alison Bechdel

POX POPULI

10/20

451

SORRY I'M LATE.

TRAFFIC'S INSANE.

IN SADR CITY, AMERICAN AIRSTRIKES LEFT 15 WOMEN AND 9 CHILDREN WOUNDED. OPERATIONS BY U.S. TROOPS ARE KILLING TWICE AS MANY IRAQIS AS ATTACKS BY INSURGENTS.

KERRY'S FINALLY TALKING ABOUT THE MISTAKES THEY MADE IN IRAQ-BUT THEY DIDN'T MAKE ANY! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY PLANNED! THE MORE CHAOS, THE MORE INSURGENCY, THE MORE RISK OF TERROR THERE IS, THE MORE PEOPLE WILL VOTE FOR BUSH!

YOU'RE WHITE AS A SHEET! WHAT'S WRONG?! BAD NEWS FROM DR. ROMMEL?

AT THE U.N., PRESIDENT BUSH SAID," WE KNOW THAT DICTATORS ARE QUICK TO CHOOSE AGGRESSION, WHILE FREE NATIONS STRNE TO RESOLVE DIFFERENCES IN PEACE."

ADD THE BLOVIATING PUSBAGS AT FOX NEWS WHIPPING PEOPLE INTO A FRENZY OF NATIONALISM, AND IT'S A PERFECT LOOP. THE POWERFUL PROFIT WHILE THE POWERLESS ON BOTH SIDES ATTACK EACH OTHER.

WHAT IS THE @#*ING MATTER WITH PEOPLE?! WHY CAN'T THEY SEE WHAT'S GOING ON? HOW CAN THEY BE SUCH IDIOTS?!

BETSY GILHOOLEY WON

A MacARTHUR.

IN A CAMPAIGN SPEECH TODAY, SENATOR KERRY USED WORDS WITH MORE THAN TWO SYLLABLES. THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ACCUSED HIM OF EMBOLDENING THE ENEMY."

OH, GREAT. LOOK AT THIS ONE. YOU'VE GOT THE FREEDOM, LADY, WHAT'S IT GONNA BE? MALL OR HOME DESPOT?

WALMART

WART

GOD, SYDNEY! YOU LIVE IN SUCH AN ELITIST BUBBLE! PEOPLE ARE GETTING THEIR HEADS SAWN OFF, AND YOU'RE UPSET BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T GET A GRANT?

A GENIUS GRANT. FOR HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.

YOU KNOW WHO SHOULD GET A FREAKING GENIUS GRANT? THE CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS BEHIND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.

DON'T HONK! I KNOW

HER!

HOME DEPOT

PRESIDENT BUSH CONTINUES TO CLOSE THE GENDER GAP BY CONVINCING "SECURITY MOMS" THAT HIS WAR ON TERRORISM IS WORKING.

IT'S CHERYL, MY RADIATION TECH THE WOMAN WHOSE SON GOT KILLED IN BAGHDAD IN JUNE.

GOD. I'M SORRY. WHAT A JERK.

SMEK!

NO PROBLEM. I APPRECIATE THE COMPANY. IT WAS GETTING LONELY IN MY ELITIST BUBBLE.

www.DykesToWatchOutfor.com

BUST CHENEY

BUSH

FREEDOM