Awake and Sing!
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Review of Awake & Sing!

reviewed by Joe Stead
steadstyle.com
10/14/02

Critical Evaluation: * * * * out of * * * *

With two brilliant productions of "The Time of Your Life" and "Awake and Sing!" currently on the Chicago boards, local theatre-goers can take an enlightening look back in time to an era of ethical, political and economic upheaval that shows stunning parallels to our own times. Both William Saroyan and Clifford Odets rose to fame during the 1930s through the volatile and politically progressive work of the infamous Group Theatre. Both avowedly left-wing anti-commerce, pro-humanist playwrights, they championed an impassioned if idealized notion of human nature that still rings true and powerful many decades after their plays first graced the stage.

Steppenwolf’s production of Saroyan’s "The Time of Your Life" plays out this socialist agenda on a grand scale, but no less moving or thrilling is TimeLine Theatre Company’s stirring and intimate revival of Odets’ "Awake and Sing!" From the first glance of Noelle C.K. Hathaway’s period-perfect set design, we know we are in the presence of greatness.

TimeLine may not have the biggest stage in town, but its productions are typically flawlessly mounted and this one is no exception. From the vintage props and furniture down to the authentic cracks in the plaster, Hathaway’s spectacular design creates an environment that is at once humble and homey. It is a credit to Director Louis Contey for assembling a cast who can hold their own with the set design.

Set in a crowded Bronx walk-up apartment in 1935, the play introduces us to the Berger family, immigrant Jews fighting for a better life amidst poverty, clashing values and ideas of what constitutes success. Myron Berger is the head of the household in name only since his only function seems to be placing the occasional race track bet and taking orders from his sharp-tongued, domineering wife Bessie. Bessie is the personification of an old school Jewish mother. Women’s places, she believes, are in the home raising families, a man’s responsibility is to be rich and successful, and traditional values are the only way to achieve respectability, period.

"We don’t want life to be printed on dollar bills," her 21-year-old son Ralph declares. Ralph is working a menial factory job that has just been downsized and left him with a paltry income, hardly prime marriage material for the girl he loves. Ralph’s fiery old communist grandfather Jacob believes that a woman insults a man like nothing else, and has talked great ideas for 70 years but only in his head. Jacob hopes that Ralph will take up the revolutionary cause, imploring him that life is still full of golden opportunities.

Ralph’s sister Hennie is also facing difficult choices. Hennie is pregnant and unable to find the father of her child. A quick marriage must be arranged, but she finds herself torn between a meek Jewish shopkeeper and a hard-boiled childhood friend. The choices that the young people must make speak volumes about their character and integrity.

TimeLine’s pungent, even-handed production features a flawless, intelligent cast. Rich Baker is superb as the blustery old patriarch Jacob, movingly passing the torch to the young and idealistic Ralph (portrayed with appealing conviction by Jesse Weaver). It would be easy to play Bessie as a stereotypical shrew, but Isabel Liss gives her some real dimensions and backbone. Brian McCartney’s jovial, big-pocketed Uncle Morty offers some fine lighthearted contrast as the successful manufacturer reminding his poor relatives that it is a rich man’s money that puts a roof over their heads.

The entire ensemble (including Whit Spurgeon, Beth Lacke, Richard Wehbe, David Parkes and Scott Aiello) take their opportunities to shine. "Awake and Sing!" is another astonishing piece of theatre by a company perfectly in tune with their mission of presenting outstanding historically-based plays.