'Paradise Lost' at TimeLine Theatre

by Dan Zeff
published August 27, 2007
ILLINOIS WIRE

The show gets a rating of 3 1/2 stars.

Clifford Odets was the hot button American playwright of the 1930's, but by the start of World War II he had left the stage for Hollywood and gradually disappeared from the theater scene. Odets was largely neglected by a generation of American theaters and audiences, but he has undergone some serious reclamation in recent years, at least among Chicagoland theaters.

In the early 2000's, area playgoers have enjoyed strong revivals of such Odets classics as "Awake and Sing!", "Rocket to the Moon," and "Golden Boy." The TimeLine Theatre has been in the forefront of the Odets renaissance, currently adding to the luster of its restaging of the Odets canon with a revival of the playwright's lesser regarded drama, "Paradise Lost."

"Paradise Lost" opened in 1935, shortly after Odets had set the American theater on its ear with his "Waiting for Lefty" and "Awake and Sing!" The dramatist believed the play reflected some of his best writing but the show got mixed reviews and had a disappointing run. The TimeLine certainly has given the drama every chance to shine, with an exemplary cast and insightful directing by Louis Contey, an old hand with an Odets script and the best director of realist modern dramas in the area.

It¹s easy to see how the play disappointed critics and audiences primed in 1935 for a hit on the level of "Awake and Sing!" First, "Paradise Lost" has too many characters, 19 in all, giving the play an overstuffed feeling. The scene is familiar Odets ground, a family in New York City struggling during the Great Depression, but there is no plot, just a continuous series of crises and disasters. "Paradise Lost" displays plenty of compassion for its hapless characters, but there is little humor, at least in the TimeLine version. Instead, the atmosphere is saturated with frustration, bitterness, anger, and betrayal. There are some powerful
moments of high drama, but there are also cloying interludes of soapbox
speechifying.

The action takes place in the home of Leo Gordon, a middle class businessman who designs handbags for a small company he operates with his partner, Sam Katz. The congested household includes Leo's wife Clara, their sons Julie and Ben, and their daughter Pearl. Sam Katz and his wife Bertha live upstairs. Gus Michaels, Leo's friend, is a boarder, along with Gus's tramp daughter Libby, who marries Julie.

Further crowding the story are Julie's boyhood friend Kewpie, turned smalltime gangster, and Lucas Pike, a furnace maintenance man seething with social outrage. Still others move in and out of the story, like two immigrant workers who demand better working conditions at the Gordon-Katz shop, a Tammany Hall ward healer named Phil Foley, Pearl's boyfriend Felix, who leaves her in despair over his prospects as a musician, and a bizarre character named Mr. May who opening advertises himself as a man who can save a failing business through arson.

Only the sensible and clear-sighted Clara has a grip on the real world. Leo is a hopelessly idealistic dreamer, an easy mark for his embezzling partner. Ben is a former Olympic running champion who is useless now that his athletic days are over. Julie is dying of sleeping sickness and the musically gifted Pearl is alone with her beloved piano until even that is taken from her. Kewpie has an affair with the sluttish Libby while Sam cheats on his naïve and trusting partner.

It all ends badly for everyone. The economic catastrophe of the Depression brings down the Gordon family, and all of Leo's fine words about a brave new world just ahead don't lessen the reality that he and his family are about to be put out in the street.

The frequently eloquent Odets writing can't conceal the episodic nature of the narrative and the unrelieved downward spiral of the many lives on stage. The only character with any money by the end of the play is Kewpie, and he is filled with self-loathing. Leo is offered money from three different sources to rescue him from eviction from his home, but he is too blinded by middle-class pride to accept the desperately needed help.

The play may be deeply flawed, but the TimeLine ensemble is flawless. I don¹t remember when I've seen so many just-right performances in one production. Each actor, down to the smallest cameo looks and sounds authentic in his or her role. They all fit snugly in Karen Hoffman's intimate but visually convincing 1930's parlor set. Alex Wren Meadows has designed costumes that bring to visual life the frumpy look of the Depression years. Keith Parham's lighting and Andrew Hansen's original music complete the spot-on physical production.

As for the acting, 14 performers take on the 19 roles and they all bring their characters to vivid and sometimes tragic life. The honor roll starts with Michael Kingston as Leo and Janet Ulrich Brooks as Clara and continues with Aaron Golden (Ben), Jurgen Hooper (Julie), Mechelle Moe (Pearl), Brian McCartney (Sam Katz), Angela Bullard (Bertha Katz), Scott Aiello (Lucas Pike), Jeremy Glickstein (Kewpie), Tien Doman (Libby Michaels), Whit Spurgeon (Gus Michaels), with Craig Degel, Clayton Smerican, and Hanlon Smith-Dorsey in minor but telling parts. Louis Contey orchestras the large cast and incident-jammed script with his usual keen eye and ear for credible realism.

"Paradise Lost" is no rescued classic, but it's a play worth doing and worth seeing. Connoisseurs of impeccable ensemble acting should be the first in line to buy tickets.