Maybe Honesty Really IS The Best Policy

One of my favorite musicals has always been 1962's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Inspired by the works of the ancient Roman playwright, Plautus, it boasts a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart and is the first Broadway musical to have both music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. At the end of the show, the company wraps up the plot with the following words: "What is the moral? Must be a moral. Here is the moral, wrong or right: Morals tomorrow, comedy tonight!"

Many people find ambiguity in fiction quite irritating. But in today's world, it's accepted that, with some authors, one book may lead to another just as, with certain films, there is the possibility of a sequel (or, these days, a prequel). Nevertheless, whether reading a book or watching a movie, whether it's a comedy or tragedy, most people prefer to have the experience neatly wrapped up for them without any loose strands remaining undone.

After years of listening to religious conservatives boasting, bragging, and braying about their patriotism, family values, and right to claim the moral high ground (despite a marked tendency toward racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, domestic abuse, infidelity, child pornography, corruption, misogyny, torture, conversion therapy, and sex trafficking), many Americans have had their fill of the appalling practices of such hypocrites as Donald Trump, Franklin Graham, Mike Pence, William Barr, and Stephen Miller who, as a gaggle of morally bankrupt conservatives, make the cut-throat amorality of Sweeney Todd and Nellie Lovett seem admirable. Perhaps that's why so many voters are demonstrating a hunger for the fierce fury of Elizabeth Warren, the prosecutorial zeal of Kamala Harris, and the basic honesty of Julian Castro. It's no wonder they cheer for Pete Buttigieg when he claims that:

"The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion, but we should call out hypocrisy when we see it. For a party that associates itself with Christianity to say that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages, means that they have lost all claim to ever use religious language again. They can no longer claim that language of religion or values.”

As the 2020 Presidential election draws nearer, American must ask themselves "Who owns the moral high ground? And is it even worth owning if it will destroy you?"

Two recent dramas depict messy situations in which no one can really lay a claim to moral purity. Written and directed by Wesley Taylor, an 11-minute short which received its West Coast premiere during the 2019 Frameline Film Festival paints a poignant portrait of two gay men who are down on their luck.

As the film begins, Xavier (Isaac Cole Powell) is scrolling through pictures on a gay dating app. After ringing a friend's doorbell and being told over the building's intercom to go home, he returns to his apartment feeling lonely and ill at ease. Returning to the dating app, he starts getting messages from Randall (Alan Filderman), an older man who offers to pay him for sex. Not one to miss out on an opportunity for easy money, Xavier keeps negotiating the details until the price has reached $300.

Isaac Cole Powell stars in Xave Me Please

Upon arriving at Randall's apartment, he pockets the money and nervously starts to disrobe, revealing a smooth, handsome gymnast's body that is almost as appealing as his face. But when Randall excuses himself to go to the bathroom, Xavier panics, grabs his clothes, and runs out the door. Once back in the safety of his apartment, he begins to regret what he has done and tries to return to Randall's place. No one answers the apartment's buzzer but, as he walks away, Xavier spots an older man sitting alone at a table in a restaurant. After entering, Xavier walks over to Randall, puts the money on the table, and says "That wasn't me. I'm not homeless."

Isaac Cole Powell stars in Xave Me Please

"Not yet," replies Randall, who then asks the waiter to bring another menu. Taylor's film ends on an ambiguous note which assumes, at the very least, that the two men will share a meal. The film's writer/director and star, however, anticipate a much happier future.

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"Is it possible to have a good time at The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s fiercely cynical opera about the destructive power of the almighty dollar?" asks New York Times critic Joshua Barone. "It certainly is difficult: As the bodies pile up (death by uninhibited pleasure, or by the simple inability to pay a bar tab), sympathy is hard to come by. So are happy endings. Mahagonny (1930) is the peak of Weill and Brecht’s tumultuous, influential six-year partnership, which also gave birth to works like The Threepenny Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins. Its form paves the way for Brecht’s trademark 'epic theater,' with an episodic plot that progresses with unsettling nonchalance."

Other than performances of the above-mentioned Mahagonny, The Threepenny Opera, a 1963 production of Mother Courage and Her Children directed by Jerome Robbins (that starred Anne Bancroft, Zohra Lampert, Barbara Harris, and Gene Wilder), and a 1967 production of Galileo at the Vivian Beaumont Theater starring Anthony Quayle, I haven't seen much of Brecht's work performed onstage. The California Shakespeare Theater recently debuted a new production of The Good Person of Szechwan using a translation by Wendy Arons that was adapted by Tony Kushner.

A scene from the Cal Shakes production of
The Good Person of Szechwan (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

With scenic design by Michael Locher, costumes by Ulises Alcala, and lighting by Jiyoun Chang, Eric Ting has directed the three hour long production with a great deal of energy. The performance begins as Wang, the Water Seller (Lance Gardner) informs the audience that he is keeping an eye open for three Gods who will soon visit Szechwan in search of a good person. Most of the town's citizens are too busy or too selfish to show any generosity toward strangers, but Wang's friend, the prostitute Shen Te (Francesca Fernandez McKenzie), is the proverbial whore with a heart of gold.




Shen Te is the kind of woman who won't hesitate to put someone else's needs above her own. Willing to ask a potential customer to postpone their meeting so she can offer the Gods shelter in her humble home, she is rewarded for her kindness with enough money to buy a tobacco shop. As soon as word gets out about her good luck, every person she has ever known arrives asking for financial assistance or claiming that Shen Te "owes" them for their past kindnesses to her.

The barber, Shu Fu (Philip Wong). and landlady, Mi Tzu (J Jha) in a
scene from The Good Person of Szechwan (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

Besieged by greedy, grasping neighbors who are too lazy to find jobs (and too kind-hearted to stand up for herself), Shen Te eventually takes refuge in an alter ego. After disappearing for several days, she returns to town in the guise of her male cousin, Shui Ta (a hard-nosed capitalist with no sympathy whatsoever for underdogs).

Francesca Fernandez McKenzie as Shui Ta in
The Good Person of Szechwan (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

Old sex workers who have been begging Shen Te for help, her greedy landlady, a wannabe pilot and heartless grifter named Yang Sun (Armando McClain) who dazzles her with romantic possibilities, and a lecherous barber named Shu Fu (hilariously portrayed by Phil Wong) are deeply confused by being offered kindness by Shen Te and then being rudely kicked to the curb by the mysterious Shui Ta. Shen Te's problems become even more complicated when she discovers that she is pregnant. When Shui Ta is eventually brought to trial on suspicion of having killed Shen Te, s/he reveals the truth to the three Gods who came to Szechwan (who, for reasons of their own, cannot admit to having made a mistake).

Wang the Water Seller (Lance Gardner) addresses the court in a
scene from The Good Person of Szechwan (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

In her program note, Philippa Kelly (the resident dramaturg at Cal Shakes) explains that:

“Myths illustrate cultural ideals and stories that are meant to represent and challenge human value systems. We turn to myths (origin stories that display the question of ‘what it takes to be good,’ for example) to understand our fears, ambitions, and ideals. Brecht wanted to dramatize such myths. He wrote, ‘Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which you shape it.’ His purpose was not to draw observers into an empathic involvement with a particular group of characters and situations, but to engage his audience in a critical evaluation of character and action. For this purpose, he used songs, non-realistic lighting, episodic structure, and direct audience address to compel a sense of removal from the scene being staged -- to question his characters and their actions, forbidding the audience from entirely entering the production as if it were an extension of their own world.”

The people sponging off Shen Te end up as Shui Ta's factory workers in
a scene from The Good Person of Szechwan (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

“The famous analyst Carl Jung once said that myth is like music: it gives expression to the ‘greatest’ thoughts that otherwise would remain blurred if not for its power to break down barriers between feeling and intellect, taking recognizable shapes in the minds of people living decades and even centuries apart. Brecht felt that Western acting was still deeply ‘parsonic’ -- that is, ‘to do with being a person.’ He set his play in Szechwan because he felt that traditional Chinese acting lent itself to symbolic and mythic qualities. The Good Person displays Brecht’s belief in the mythic proportions of life that can be universally instructive to human beings. Brecht believed that, as theatergoers, we should always be exercising our critical faculties because theatre, for him, has a duty to dramatize ethical and moral dilemmas. In The Good Person, these dilemmas are centered on Shen Te and her relationships with the townspeople around her.”

Shui Ta (Francesca Fernandez McKenzie) is put on trial in
The Good Person of Szechwan (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

Doubling as the generous Shen Te and her penurious cousin, Shui Ta, Francesca Fernandez McKenzie gives a powerful performance in the lead role. She is ably abetted by Lance Gardner as Wang, the Water Seller, and Armando McClain as the pilot, Yang Sun. Because this production depends on most cast members tackling multiple roles, Cal Shakes veteran Margo Hall appears as a brother, an old woman, and Sun's feisty mother, Mrs. Yang, while Anthony Fusco does triple duty as a husband, an unemployed man, and a tired old female sex worker.

Armando McClain, Margo Hall, Victor Talmadge, and
 Sharon Shao in a scene from The Good Person of Szechwan
(Photo by: Kevin Berne)

Phil Wong (as the First God, the carpenter Lin To, and the barber Shu Fu) and Dean Linnard (as the nephew, the policeman, and the Bonze) get plenty of opportunities to work their impressive comedic magic on the audience while Lily Tung Crystal shines in multiple roles as the Second God, a niece, and Mrs. Shin.

In smaller roles, Monica Lin appears as the Third God and a greedy sister-in-law, Victor Talmadge doubles as an old man and someone's wife, and J Jha rotates between appearing as Shen Te's greedy landlady, Mi Tzu, and an elderly grandfather. This Cal Shakes production benefits immensely from the work of music director Min Kahng (who also composed the show's incidental music) and sound designer Brendan Aanes.

Francesca Fernandez McKenzie (Shui Ta) argues with the
barber, Shu Fu (Phil Wong) in The Good Person of Szechwan
(Photo by: Kevin Berne)

This is a complicated show which, at times, can feel a bit long-winded but is worth waiting for the final resolution. Performances of The Good Person of Szechwan continue through July 21 at the California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda (click here for tickets).