The Cleveland Public Theatre production of Requiem, written by Hanoch Levin, directed by Raymond Bobgan, and featuring Peter Lawson Jones, is a powerful work that explores the significance of connectivity and caring for others under devastated and anti-humanity/anti-ecology circumstances.
An allegorical character, The Old Man (Peter Lawson Jones), is a modern-day “everyman” who, just before his own death, realizes his selfish and inconsiderate behavior, especially toward his own wife (The Old Woman), performed by Venetia Whatley, whose facial expressions (Suwatana Rockland applied excellent stage-makeup on this performer) tell everything. The Old Man’s redemption comes too late for the couple (The Old Woman dies), but philosophically, he completes his journey to become a better human before his own death.
Hanoch Levin (1943-1999) was a renowned Israeli playwright who dared to challenge authority through his plays, stories, and poems.
Premiered in May 1999, just before his death, Requiem (Ashkava) has been performed in Israel and abroad. According to theatre scholar Shai Bar Yaacov, the central themes of many of Levin’s plays include “the meanness of existence, the constant hierarchy of suffering in human relations, the futile search for meaning or compassion in a grotesque and distorted puppet-like existence, and the total lack of any hope of transcendence or escape.”
These themes are very much Beckettian and Sartrian existentialist, illuminating the meaninglessness of meanings, words, and existence in a world where people are trying to destroy each other. The narrative and presentation are yet extremely realistic; actually, Levin based this play on three of Chekhov’s stories: “Rothschild’s Fiddle,” “The Hollow,” and “Greif.” As Chekhov did in his works—stories and plays—Levin depicted, in Requiem (and other plays), how people deal with or avoid dealing with problems, solving or compounding human misery and suffering.
In Requiem, people are preoccupied with their own survival. Those who survived seem to have forgotten how to care about other humans. That’s why The Old Man and The Mother communicate well with the Cherubs rather than humans.
Peter Lawson Jones’s Old Man is compelling, illuminating this allegorical character’s amalgam of cantankerousness, aloofness, yearning for connectivity (with others), pathos, and bathos. The production’s excellent ensemble-based performers–Hosea Billingsley (The Driver), Katie Boissoneault (Shadow Person), Julia Boudiab (Happy Cherub), Jordan Ficyk (Shadow Person), Brooke Lynlee (Shadow Person), Nnamdi Okpala (Funny Cherub), Corin B. Self (Prostitute with a Reckle/Pumpkin Shaped Drunk), Kat Shy (Prostitute with a Mole/Zucchini Shaped Drunk), Yuval Tal (The Mother), Venetia Whatley (The Old Woman), and Eric Wloszek (Medic) all support this 80-minute storytelling.
Scenic designer Cameron Caley Michalak used a turn table (with a non-rotatable center) to depict the characters’ travels through different spaces and times. Multiple boards suggest windows, doors, and other identifiable or nonidentifiable objects. Projected on the back wall—designed by Benjamin Gantose and Catherine Anne Pace—are abstract images that might imply buildings, houses, walls, and different parts of the city—which may epitomize many places in war-torn countries and regions such as Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza.
Suwatana (Pla) Rockland’s costumes evoke the folkloric atmosphere with contemporary punk rock and cyberpunk renditions. This “punk” costume, the mini skirt and a blouse for the character of the drag (another passenger on the Toroika/bus), a khaki worker’s outfit for the Old Man, and a Russian peasant style skirt and a babushka scarf (Rockland pulled this from her personal collection), Rockland’s costumes illuminate both the feelings of “now/here” and “somewhere/there.” Black hooded jumpsuits worn by the Shadow People (puppeteers) came from Rockland’s research on different trees since they need to demonstrate a symbiosis with the objects they manipulate, such as the trees, branches, and leaves.
Composer and music director Ryan Charles Ramer (Keyboardist) leads a three-person “orchestra” on the balcony—Sunmer L. Canter (Bassoonist) and Maria Pez (Cellist). Ramer’s music is sometimes melancholic, folkloric, and allegorical, suitable for this Chekhovian philosophical storytelling piece. Puppet designer Ian Petroni’s “puppets” (handled by Shadow People) provide a carnivalesque atmosphere with effective stage effects.
The Old Man may represent a country/nation whose sole focus has become making money and getting rich by promoting mechanical reproduction, high-tech warfare, and resultant mass “murders.” That country could be capitalist, communist, oligarchic, dictatorial, or a combination. The production of Levin’s Requiem is so much needed today.
March 14-April 6, 2024
Producer and Director: Raymond Bobgan
Line Producer: Anastasía Urozhaeva
Stage Manager: Colleen McCaughey
Assistant Stage Manager: Angela Warholic
Lighting and Projection Designer: Benjamin Gantose
Technical Director: Joshua Smith
Set Designer: Cameron Caley Michalak
Costume Designer: Suwatana (Pla) Rockland
Video Scenery Artist: Catherine Anne Pace
Composer and Music Director: Ryan Charles Ramer,
Puppet Designer: Ian Petroni
Translators: Lee Nishri-Howitt and Leland Gregory Frankel
Photographer: Steve Wagner
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