| . | 03/26/2009
Power
By: Victor Gluck
Alfred Gingold in a scene from Power
(Photo credit: Agnes Meilhac)
While the federal government currently deals with the debate over credit reform and health care, the Metropolitan Playhouse has staged the first New York revival of Power, one of the Federal Theater Project’s “Living Newspapers” which asked in 1937 whether electrical power was a private commodity or a public good. Arthur Arent’s play, now 72 years old, still remains exciting, still relevant, even though the debate over electric power is no longer going on. The Metropolitan Playhouse remains faithful to its mission to performs plays from America’s past that help discover “where we come from to better know who we are.”
The original production staged at the Ritz Theatre, now the Walter Kerr, used 50 actors, now financially impossible. Mark Harborth’s production, which uses nine actors to play 150 roles, is clever and inventive and moves swiftly through its 21 sequences. Power was based on months of research by 25 journalists-turned-playwrights. As much vaudeville as a drama, Arent’s text includes material taken from the New York Times, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Trade Commission findings, the Congressional Record, U.S. Government Printing Office pamphlets, etc.
Power travels from the corridors of power to the homes of ordinary citizens to bring alive such events as a Newark, New Jersey, power failure that affected one million people to the battle over the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The play not only dramatizes the headline news, but gives the historical background, as well as fictional, personal dramas that make the problem immediate and understandable.
Except for Michael Hardart as the Voice of the Living Newspaper, a kind of narrator/master of ceremonies, the other actors all play multiple roles up to as many as fifteen. As the vignettes often come quite quickly and the appearance of the various members of the cast are often momentary as they change hats, ties or full costumes to portray additional characters, it is difficult to single out the work of any particular actors.
However, it would be accurate to report that all the actors shine at various times in different scenes, from farmers to tycoons, from politicians to inventors, from housewives to investors. The rest of this hard working cast is made up of Eric C. Bailey, Scott Casper, Sidney Fortner, Alfred Gingold, Jenny Greeman, Rafael Jordan, Toya Nash and Jason Szamreta.
Most impressive is the lighting design by Maryvel Bergen which creates the environment for the 21 scenes which take place in various areas of the three-sided stage. The costumes by Fortner take us back to the Great Depression and beyond. Narberth’s unit setting (with Pamela Lawton’s backdrop, a representation of a electric power,) allows for the swiftly flowing production that resembles today’s television news. The musical arrangements which punctuate the scenes are by Rob Kendt.
Billed as a “Thrilling Dramatization of Modern Industry” back in 1937, Arthur Arent’s Power may now be seen as living history as well as a cautionary tale. The Metropolitan Playhouse production directed by Mark Harborth offers an energized cast in an exciting evening that reopens the debate on the private versus public good, a question that has become relevant once again in our own times of economic hardship.
Power (through April 12)
Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 E. 4th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-352-3101 or http://www.Metropolitanplayhouse.org
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