Thankfully, one of the strongest tools available to women is satire. Ginny Hogan's recent piece entitled Advantages I've Received Simply By Being A Woman doesn't pull any punches. The star of Full Frontal With Samantha Bee has done a stunning job of mixing satire with investigative reporting.
Only a fool would think that feminine rage is limited to the United States. Two recent clips from The Mash Report on BBC Two do a solid job of stripping away any pretense of male privilege.
Here in the Bay area, two recent revivals take an interesting look at how women have fared under the influences of capitalism and patriarchy.
- One of the earliest plays by George Bernard Shaw depicted a young woman who had been placed on a pedestal by her doting, widowed father in such a way that she would never have to worry about money. Fast forward 125 years and it's ironic how (very much like some modern day Republicans) his daughter doesn't hesitate to declare how much she hates the poor.
- A popular play from the 1940s showed what can happen when a woman who takes pride in the fact that she is stupid learns that she doesn't have to stay that way. In no time at all, she is proudly telling her mentor that a senator's wife "is just as dumb as I am."
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First produced in 1892, George Bernard Shaw's Widowers' Houses is being revived by the Aurora Theatre Company in a handsome new production directed by Joy Carlin with costumes by Callie Floor, scenic design by Kent Dorsey, and sound by Chris Houston. Like many Shavian comedies, the focus is on the impact wealth can have on a person's socioeconomic status and how an odd twist of fate can suddenly turn the tables on those who smugly assumed that their fortunes were safe. The cast of characters includes:- William de Burgh Cokane (Michael Gene Sullivan), a man on vacation who is currently visiting Remagen on the Rhine with his traveling companion.
- Harry Trench (Dan Hoyle), an idealistic young doctor whose British family may have aristocratic roots but whose finances are somewhat tenuous. Determined to make his own way in the world, he meets a beautiful young woman while on vacation, falls in love with her, and proposes marriage: with one caveat.
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| Dan Hoyle (Harry) and Megan Trout (Blanche) in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
- Blanche (Megan Trout) is the object of Harry's affection. Well-dressed and carefully groomed, she is vacationing with her father when she meets Harry and thinks she has fallen in love. However, Blanche has led an extremely pampered life and is accustomed to having the kind of creature comforts that an impecunious young man might not be able to afford.
- Mr. Sartorius (Warren David Keith) is a self-made businessman who has grown rich by meticulously reinvesting his profits in real estate. Concerned about his future health, Sartorius is eager to find a suitor for his pretty young daughter. A stern, parsimonious man, he has built his wealth on the backs of the poor people who live in his slums.
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| Dan Hoyle, Michael Gene Sullivan, and Warren David Keith in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
- Waiter and Annie (Sarah Mitchell) are the two servants who wait on Sartorius and Blanche in Remagen and back at home in London. Even though both characters are lower class, they take pride in their work and are less than impressed with Blanche's displays of haughtiness.
- Lickcheese (Howard Swain) is a rent collector employed by Sartorius who is fired when his behavior displeases the old man. Like Pygmalion's Alfred P. Doolittle, Lickcheese lives by his wits and returns later in the play with a big surprise.
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| Warren David Keith (Sartorius) and Howard Swain (Lickcheese) in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
The first act of Widowers' Houses lays the foundation for the economic pressures which will dominate Acts II and III.
- Although Harry and Blanche are convinced that they are in love, when the doctor insists that they can only marry if Blanche is willing to live on his income (and his income alone), she is shocked and offended that her husband-to-be would not be willing to let her live off of her own money.
- When Lickcheese explains to Blanche that her father's wealth derives from depriving his tenants of a decent place to live, she is horrified by his revelation (but not horrified enough to want to take a few steps down the socioeconomic ladder).
- When Harry castigates Sartorius for the way the old man oppresses his tenants, Sartorius decides to give Harry a sobering lesson in how the real estate economy works, especially since Harry owns the mortgage that Sartorius must pay every month.
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| Dan Hoyle, Warren David Keith, and Megan Trout in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
Shaw explained that:
"My first three plays were what people call realistic. They were dramatic pictures of middle class society from the point of view of a Socialist who regards the basis of that society as thoroughly rotten economically and morally. Their purpose was to make people thoroughly uncomfortable whilst entertaining them artistically. The notion that the people in Widowers' Houses are abnormally vicious or odious could only prevail in a community in which Sartorius is absolutely typical in his unconscious villainy."
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| Warren David Keith (Sartorius) and Megan Trout (Blanche) in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
“Many of my critics have been completely beaten by the play simply because they are ignorant of society. What I mean is that they do not know life well enough to recognize it in the glare of the footlights. They denounce Sartorius, my house-knacking widower, as a monstrous libel on the middle and upper class because he grinds his money remorselessly out of the poor. But they do not (and cannot) answer his argument as to the impossibility of his acting otherwise under our social system... these ‘guilty creatures sitting at a play’ who, instead of being struck to the soul and presently proclaiming their malefactions, are naively astonished and revolted at the spectacle of a man on the stage acting as we are all acting perforce every day.”
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| Megan Trout (Blanche) and Sarah Mitchell (Annie) in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
Widowers' Houses offers audiences a provocative lesson in how landlords can get rich by squeezing every cent from their tenants without offering to make improvements on their properties. In a volatile real estate market like the Bay area (where forces of gentrification and rent control are constantly at odds with each other) and a national climate of Republicans trying to strip less fortunate citizens of their hard-earned rights and benefits, Shaw's play offers plenty of food for thought about income inequality and its effect on society. When Lickcheese's fortunes suddenly take a turn for the better and he offers Sartorius a way to make things better for everyone, it seems like a breath of fresh air (even to those who have spent their lives trying to choke people they consider to be inferior).
This is an especially handsome production for Aurora Theatre Company, with Kent Dorsey's set and Callie Floor's costumes providing the kind of restrained elegance that keeps the ugliness of the real world safely at bay. The six-actor ensemble of familiar faces on Bay area stages does a splendid job with the material. Warren David Keith is a frosty Sartorius who has learned to put up with his daughter's temperamental outbursts (beautifully captured by Megan Trout). In one of his rare appearances in period costume, Dan Hoyle is bit more restrained than usual and has added a curious character tic of seeming to speak out of the side of his mouth.
Surprisingly, the strongest impressions are made by the two members of the working class. Howard Swain's Lickcheese is filled with the kind of bluster one might expect from a Savoyard actor bearing a major secret about someone's identity in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta while the delightful Sarah Mitchell scores strong comedic points as both a male and female servant.
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| Warren David Keith (Sartorius) and Megan Trout (Blanche) in a scene from Widowers' Houses (Photo by: David Allen) |
Performances of Widowers' Houses continue through February 25 at the Aurora Theatre Company (click here for tickets).
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In her article entitled Huge Human Inequality Study Hints Revolution is in Store for U.S. -- Every Society Has Its Tipping Point, Yasmin Tayag explains how the United States now has one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world. As we look back with whatever knowledge our society has acquired over the past 70 years regarding bullying, domestic violence, and sexual harassment, it’s interesting to note that, just as World War II was coming to an end (September 2, 1945), two new plays bore a shocking commonality.- On April 19, 1945, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, Carousel, opened at the Majestic Theatre. Based on Ferenc Molnar’s 1909 drama, Liliom, its protagonist was a tough carnival barker with poor impulse control and a potentially violent personality.
- On February 4, 1946, Garson Kanin’s comedy, Born Yesterday, opened at the Lyceum Theatre, catapulting Judy Holliday to stardom for her portrayal of Billie Dawn.
- The following sketch (written by Harry Enfield for the BBC) mocks traditional assumptions about how gender roles dictate a woman's interests.
What do Carousel and Born Yesterday have in common? Each revolves around a brutish man who, at one point, physically attacks a woman he purports to love. Is it any coincidence that the San Francisco Playhouse has debuted a new production of Born Yesterday at the same time that a major revival of Carousel is preparing to open on Broadway? Or that, exactly two years after Center Rep presented Born Yesterday up in Walnut Creek, San Francisco Playhouse is staging another production for Bay area audiences?
In a recent blog post, the artistic director of San Francisco Playhouse, Bill English, was quick to remind audiences that the reason to revive classics is because “Each time we see them, we come to the story as a different person and view the plot and characters in the light of current times. Hearing stories again is a way to gauge where we have been, where we are now, and where we are headed on our path of evolution.”
That's an especially important consideration with Born Yesterday. Center Rep's production was planned and performed long before Donald Trump rode an escalator down to the basement of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President of the United States. Since then, the cohort of greedy millionaires in his cabinet has appalled many Americans with their complete lack of concern for the health and safety of the population they are supposed to serve. As Trump (who now wants a military parade staged in the nation's capital to feed his swollen ego) leans more toward creating an authoritarian state, English's insights merit closer attention:
“When Kanin conceived of Born Yesterday, he was writing about something no less important than the danger of a dictatorship in the United States. 1946 was also the year the House Un-American Activities Committee was formed and Joseph McCarthy started going after playwrights, screenwriters and journalists including Mr. Kanin, whose career was damaged by the attacks from the HUAC. When he wrote the play, he imagined Harry Brock as the type of person who could go after power in Washington, bribing and intimidating corruptible politicians and undermining the forces of democracy. I wish we had access to earlier drafts of the play in which these themes were more clearly laid out, but the requirements of producing on Broadway were such that the more overtly political themes ended up being submerged under the glitzy wrappings of a subversive comedy disguised as a romance.”
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| Michael Torres as Harry Brock in Born Yesterday (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
“Born Yesterday serves as a cautionary tale today or at any time, when ignorance threatens to conquer enlightenment, when there may be those who wish to twist ideals into a platform to serve ultra-nationalistic ambitions. Citizenship requires us to nurture and educate those who may be ignorant. Only we can keep our nation’s ideals safe from corruption. Billie, our chorus girl, is not so much transformed into a more successful social self, as she is awakened to her responsibilities as a citizen. She makes that wonderful journey from ignorance to enlightenment, opening her eyes to the brilliance and the frailty of our constitution, and to the knowledge that only the citizens can keep us safe from those who would subvert our institutions for their own greedy purposes.”
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| Millie Brooks as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday |
San Francisco Playhouse's production of Born Yesterday plays out on Jacquelyn Scott's unit set depicting a hotel suite in our nation's capitol, with costumes by Abra Berman and sound design by Theodore J.H. Hulsker. At the performance I attended, Michael Torres was obviously under the weather but soldiered on as the bellicose Brock, demonstrating that Donald Trump is merely one boor out of an army of monied Neanderthals.
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| Jason Kapoor (Paul Verrall) and Michael Torres (Harry Brock) in a scene from Born Yesterday (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
With Louis Parnell as the corrupt Senator Norval Hedges and Terry Bamberger as the senator's wife, Gabriel Montoya did a fine job as Brock's kid brother, Eddie, groveling and running errands as necessary to keep an overgrown schoolyard bully content that everyone would cater to his wishes. While Harry Brock makes a lot of noise and displays the same lack of sophistication that got Molly Brown iced out of Denver society until she survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the real action takes place between journalist Paul Verrall (Jason Kapoor), who is attempting to interview the obnoxious Brock, Harry's alcoholic, obsequious, and enabling attorney, Ed Devery (Anthony Fusco), and Harry's mistress, Billie Dawn (Millie Brooks).
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| Louis Parnell, Anthony Fusco, Michael Torres, and Terry Bamberger in a scene from Born Yesterday (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
Shrill, stupid, but sexually shrewd, Billie is a creature who undergoes a remarkable transformation once she is given the tools of learning and sufficient encouragement to treat education as an adventure. It's charming and delightful to see her realize that she has legal power over Harry's corrupt dealings that she never bothered to understand until the day she started reading the contracts she had signed and began to ask questions. With Paul's help, she accomplishes a remarkable transfer of power from the arrogant Harry to a newly "woke" woman who knows how to use her legal rights to get what she wants.
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| Millie Brooks as Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) |
There are small moments in the production when one can't help but wonder if director Susi Damilano added some touches that might have eluded male stage directors. The ever reliable Anthony Fusco cuts to the heart of Devery's moral weakness while, with the help of Jason Kapoor's Paul Verrall, Millie Brooks sails onward to greater strength and business savvy as Billie Dawn. Those with a talent for counting cards while playing gin rummy, pinochle, or bridge, will appreciate how well Billie grasps concepts and relationships that once went right over her head.
To its credit, Kanin's script retains every bit of its original bite from the play's world premiere 72 years ago. Performances of Born Yesterday continue through March 10 at the San Francisco Playhouse (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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