An Important Work For Today

A Bright Room Called Day

Tony Kushner, the brilliant Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of ANGELS IN AMERICA, began his writing career while in his early 20’s. In 1985 Kushner wrote this long, extremely wordy, yet intellectual and lyrical examination of how Adolf Hitler’s rise to power affected a group of artistic and progressive friends living in Berlin. The play is set in the small apartment of Agnes Eggling (a superb performance by Katherine Schwartz), a middle-age actress. She shares the flat with her Hungarian lover, Vealtninc Husz (nicely enacted by Raul Alonso). Blank Theatre Company’s stirring production proves to be an especially important work for today. 

The play opens on New Years Eve as the friends gather together to toast another year. The story continues, primarily spanning the years between 1932-33, when Germany’s Weimar Republic was beginning its fall to Fascism. As the months pass, the clout and menace of the Nazi Party continues to grow stronger and more dangerous. And although Agnes and some of her friends pretend this reign of terror will be over within months, Hitler’s Third Reich rages on for years, ultimately consuming these Berliners in various ways.

As the nine characters continue gathering at Agnes’ apartment  throughout the years, a whole lot of talking and arguing takes place about everything, from politics, science, societal changes and sexual relationships to filmmaking, art and religion. Agnes’ social group includes the openly gay Gregor Bazwald (portrayed by the always magnificent Grant Carriker), a lovely, opportunistic, opium-addicted film actress, Paulinka Erdnuss (played with style and finesse by the multitalented Brandy Miller), Rosa Malek and Emil Traum, a pair of Communist bureaucrats (portrayed by powerful actors, Hadar Zusman and Alex Levy), and Annabella Gotchling (eloquently played by Shannon Bachelder) as an outspoken Revolutionist rebel.

 In addition, a enigmatic, ghost-like elderly woman haunts Agnes’s apartment (a flawless performance by veteran actress, Ann James). Appearing only to Agnes, Die Alte always shows up begging for food. Then one evening, upon everyone’s request, the Devil also materializes in the guise of asthmatic Gottfried Swetts (Ben Veatch, in a debonair cameo performance). He only stays long enough to tempt the two actresses with stardom.

But, if that wasn’t enough, the play also seesaws between the 1930’s and the 1980’s. A more contemporary, younger character emerges. Zillah Katz (portrayed by a terrifically talented Lilah Weisman) is a young American student of history who, disillusioned by the election of Ronald Reagan, has fled America and emigrated to Germany. While not fluent in the language, Zillah attempts to assimilate herself into Berlin culture, with the help of Roland, a good-looking German boy she’s picked up at a local bar (nicely played in German by Grayson Kennedy). Following Reagan’s address at the Brandenburg Gate, where he decreed, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” Zillah compares the new-elected American President to Fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler. And, not so coincidentally, with the results of the 2024 election still in our minds, Lilah’s colorful description of Reagan and her condemnation of his rhetoric and demeanor will remind theatergoers of our recently re-elected, continually controversial chief of state to be.

My hat’s off to Director Danny Kapinos. This isn’t an easy play to bring to the stage, but he’s done an admirable job of guiding his large, talented cast. The intimate Greenhouse studio theater appropriately imbues this production with the right claustrophobic feeling. The hemmed-in confines will make theatergoers will feel like they too are trapped inside Agnes’ modest Berlin flat. Alex J. Gendal’s Projection Design helps the audience keep up with the play’s timeline and the ever-changing historical events of that volatile period in Germany. And Cindy Moon has accomplished wonders in Costuming this period production on a modest budget.

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY offers a scholarly warning, yet a poetic view, at the rise of Fascism. Tony Kushner shows how, day by day, the dramatic political developments in Germany impacted a diverse group of friends. His play’s also a frightening look at how, as many Europeans ignored the warnings, the Fascist movement totally enveloped an entire country within only six months. Some of the characters’ belief that they should just sit tight and let history run its course was naive, as we now know. Their argument that Hitler’s regime of hatred and prejudice had nothing to do with them personally. However, it eventually resulted in the horrors of the Holocaust. 

With our recent election, many Americans can see this same sort of movement mirrored in our country today. Once again, it’s a question of putting one’s head in the sand until it’s safe to come out again or fighting for a true democracy. This is why, in a respite from all the light, happy holiday fare, Blank Theatre Company’s finale to their 2024 season is a difficult, yet very timely and important work for today. 

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented December 6-January 5 by Blank Theatre Company, at the Greenhouse Theatre Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 773-404-7336 or by going to www.yptchi.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.