Erin Beirnard as Violaine and Laura Bozzone as Mara
(Photo credit: Michael Abrams Photography)
In France, Paul Claudel is considered one of the most important Catholic playwrights of the twentieth century. His major works include Break of Noon, The Satin Slipper, and The Tidings Brought to Mary. In the United States, however, his works are rarely performed. The Storm Theater and Blackfriars Repertory Theatre have joined together to produce The Paul Claudel Project to rectify this deficiency. With The Tidings Brought to Mary currently on the boards in its first New York production since the 1922-23 Theatre Guild premiere, The Claudel Project will stage the playwright’s other two masterpieces next season.
On the surface, The Tidings Brought to Mary appears to be deceptively simple: a medieval miracle play. However, it is also a fairy tale, an allegory, a history play, and a philosophical investigation into the sources of faith, all rolled into one. The protagonists may be fifteenth century French peasants, but they have emotions that would do Shakespeare or the Greeks proud. The play needs the most sophisticated acting to make it believable. The anonymous 1919 translation is crystal clear but lacks the poetry which would elevate the religious and ethical debates in Claudel’s play. This lack of satisfactory translations may be one reason that Claudel’s plays are not often performed in English.
Unfortunately, The Storm Theatre production is woefully inadequate, often verging on the amateurish. There are two ways to make this play work: heightened poetry or heightened reality. Peter Dobbins’ production is successful with neither approach. Several of the actors take to ranting their speeches which becomes entirely unbelievable and undercuts the meaning of their lines. Although Dobbins’ staging (as opposed to the acting) and the visual designs (Czerton Lim, sets; Jessica Toby Lustig, costumes) are excellent, Michael Abrams’ lighting fails to highlight the play’s otherworldly aspects.
Set in the Champagne region of France in the generation of Joan of Arc, the play takes place in and around the farm of the Vercors family. In saying goodbye to cathedral builder Pierre de Craon, on his way to the Holy Land, Violaine Vercors, engaged to marry Jacques Hurey, kisses him on the lips. This leads to two tragedies: Pierre has leprosy which Violaine acquires and her jealous sister Mara observes this kiss and uses it to wreck the marriage, obtaining Jacques for herself. However, Violaine’s faith turns her into a saint and when she and Mara meet years later the play becomes a battle between the spirit and the flesh, aside from the earlier battle of good versus evil.
The play’s miracle scene is still effective despite the production’s limitations. Erin Beirnard’s Violaine radiates saintliness and Laura Bozzone as the distraught Mara is quite impassioned in this their finest moment. The rest of the production is unsubtle and often one dimensional. As Violaine and Mara’s parents, Ross DeGraw and Jenny D. Green attempt to make a virtue of innocence which is not a sufficient reading of these complex characters. As Pierre and Jacques, Douglas Taurel and Harlan Work, respectively, take only the most superficial approach to the deeply felt emotions. Bozzone has little idea how to play insidious evil in the first half of the play but is somewhat better as the devious, embittered wife in the second half. Beirnard as the trusting Violaine is at times moving but is unable to carry this deep play on her own.
The Storm Theatre and Blackfriars Repertory Theatre are to be commended for attempting a difficult, rarely seen play by a major playwright. However, Paul Claudel’s The Tidings Brought to Mary, a classic of world drama, deserves a more sophisticated production to bring out its spiritual depths.
The Tidings Brought to Mary (through April 4)
Paradise Factory, 64 E. 4th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-868-4444 or http://www.smarttix.com