COMEDY: ARRABAL VIEW OF LEFT-WING DICTATORS
By MEL GUSSOW
Published: April 8, 1982
FROM his position as a Spanish exile living in Paris, Fernando Arrabal has raised world consciousness about the evils of autocracy, reserving his most invidious antipathy for Franco, as in his devastating play ''And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers.'' Arrabal is both a satirist and a theater poet, and it is his playfully polemical side that is in evidence in his new work, ''The Extravagant Triumph of Jesus Christ, Karl Marx and William Shakespeare,'' which is in its American premiere engagement at the Intar. Any play by Arrabal is an event, but ''The Extravagant Triumph'' is less than a total success.
In this comedy, as translated by Miguel Falquez-Certain, the author's uncharacteristic target is left-wing totalitarianism. He correlates Castro with Franco (an equation that Castrophiles would certainly question), viewing them as pupil and mentor, dictatorial brothers who share more than a common language. Just as it was safe for Arrabal to return to Spain, he may be persona non grata in Cuba.
Arrabal is, first of all, an anarchist, believing that all government is bad government, and, in demonstration of his thesis, the administration under scrutiny is a ridiculous blend of the quixotic and the chaotic. As played by Ron Faber, Tallarin, the president of an unnamed but instantly identifiable banana republic, has Marxian attributes closer to Groucho's than to Karl's. In fatigues and usually a false beard, with a big cigar affixed in his face, he is a Castro lookalike.
The regime is repressive and self-aggrandizing. The leader's whims come first. Casually he stuffs the ballot box and reneges on campaign promises, while leaning back on his Barcalounger with two red hotline phones, one on each arm. As personal dalliance, he keeps a transvestite in his closet, Naseer El-Kadi, who slides out at the push of a button and poses as an odalisque. Sexually and otherwise, no one is exactly what he seems to be. Even Tallarin is eventually revealed as his own double.
As the story moves afield from its comic-book dictator into a romance between Mr. El-Kadi and a mannish lady spy, it becomes increasingly confused and sacrifices humor. Finally, when a visitor arrives from outer space, the evening ebbs. It is Mr. Faber's portrait of a dictator in disarray that is the comic focus. With his dot-like eyes and dizzy manner, the actor acts if he were drawn by a caricaturist's pen. Physically and verbally, he is an impish clown. However, in the supporting cast, only Thomas Kopache, as the president's double-dealing and masochistic minister of interior, operates on a comparable comic plateau.
Noemi ..............................Betty La Roe Garapito and Accos ..........Naseer el-Kadi Tallarin and Samir ...............................Ron Faber Elisee .................................Cecilia Flores Ioga ...................................Thomas Kopache Ziza .....................................Madeleine Le Roux Cis ........................................Brian Rose
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/08/theater/comedy-arrabal-view-of-left-wing-dictators.html
By MEL GUSSOW
Published: April 8, 1982
FROM his position as a Spanish exile living in Paris, Fernando Arrabal has raised world consciousness about the evils of autocracy, reserving his most invidious antipathy for Franco, as in his devastating play ''And They Put Handcuffs on the Flowers.'' Arrabal is both a satirist and a theater poet, and it is his playfully polemical side that is in evidence in his new work, ''The Extravagant Triumph of Jesus Christ, Karl Marx and William Shakespeare,'' which is in its American premiere engagement at the Intar. Any play by Arrabal is an event, but ''The Extravagant Triumph'' is less than a total success.
In this comedy, as translated by Miguel Falquez-Certain, the author's uncharacteristic target is left-wing totalitarianism. He correlates Castro with Franco (an equation that Castrophiles would certainly question), viewing them as pupil and mentor, dictatorial brothers who share more than a common language. Just as it was safe for Arrabal to return to Spain, he may be persona non grata in Cuba.
Arrabal is, first of all, an anarchist, believing that all government is bad government, and, in demonstration of his thesis, the administration under scrutiny is a ridiculous blend of the quixotic and the chaotic. As played by Ron Faber, Tallarin, the president of an unnamed but instantly identifiable banana republic, has Marxian attributes closer to Groucho's than to Karl's. In fatigues and usually a false beard, with a big cigar affixed in his face, he is a Castro lookalike.
The regime is repressive and self-aggrandizing. The leader's whims come first. Casually he stuffs the ballot box and reneges on campaign promises, while leaning back on his Barcalounger with two red hotline phones, one on each arm. As personal dalliance, he keeps a transvestite in his closet, Naseer El-Kadi, who slides out at the push of a button and poses as an odalisque. Sexually and otherwise, no one is exactly what he seems to be. Even Tallarin is eventually revealed as his own double.
As the story moves afield from its comic-book dictator into a romance between Mr. El-Kadi and a mannish lady spy, it becomes increasingly confused and sacrifices humor. Finally, when a visitor arrives from outer space, the evening ebbs. It is Mr. Faber's portrait of a dictator in disarray that is the comic focus. With his dot-like eyes and dizzy manner, the actor acts if he were drawn by a caricaturist's pen. Physically and verbally, he is an impish clown. However, in the supporting cast, only Thomas Kopache, as the president's double-dealing and masochistic minister of interior, operates on a comparable comic plateau.
The director, Eduardo Manet, makes ingenious use of Randy Barcelo's jack-in-the-box stage design, complete with cubbyholes and crannies and backed with a luxuriant jungle garden populated by reptilian puppets.
''The Extravagant Triumph'' is lower-case Arrabal - it is not in a class with such works as ''Handcuffs'' and ''The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria'' - but it has more than a measure of prankish wit and it whets our appetite for other works by the author. Along with another adopted Parisian, Eugene Ionesco, Arrabal is a major international playwright too infrequently represented on the New York stage. Comic Dictatorship THE EXTRAVAGANT TRIUMPH OF JESUS CHRIST, KARL MARX, AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, by Fernando Arrabal; trans- lated by Miguel Falquez-Certain; directed by Eduardo Manet; set and costume designer, Randy Barcelo; light designer, Cheryl Thacker; sound designer, Paul Garrity; production stage manager, Gail A. Burns; casting, David Rubin. Presented by Intar, Max Ferra, artistic director, and Dennis Ferguson, managing director. At 420 West 42d Street.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/08/theater/comedy-arrabal-view-of-left-wing-dictators.html
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