Paulanne Simmons
"Cat's Cradle" Goes Calypso
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| Photo by Edward Einhorn |
"Cat's Cradle"
Directed by Edward Einhorn
Walkerspace
46 Walker Street between Broadway and Church
From Feb. 23, 2008
Tues. & Thurs. 7:30 p.m., Fir. & Sat 8 p.m.
$18 (212) 353-3101 or www.theatermania.com
Closes March 15, 2008
Reviewed by Paulanne Simmons Feb. 24, 2008
If you were making a list of the authors whose novels are
most suited to dramatization, it's doubtful that Kurt Vonnegut would be
high on the list. Yet this season has seen not one but two stagings of
Vonnegut's work. The first was Godlight's "Slaughterhouse-Five"
at 59E59 Theaters, which closed Feb. 17. And now there's Untitled Theater
Company #61's "Cat's Cradle" at Walkerspace.
If Vonnegut is one of the quirkiest of writers, it's not surprising that
productions based on his work build on that quirkiness. "Cat's Cradle"
is a calypso musical with a book by Edward Einhorn and music by Henry
Akona.
Einhorn also helms, and his direction is nothing if not imaginative. He sets "Cat's Cradle" in Vonnegut's fictional Church of Bokononism, where Bokonon (Horace V. Rogers) leads his congregation in prayer and Akona's very engaging songs. The worshippers also play musical instruments and take part in the flashbacks that form the major part of the play. Clothing hangs on pegs for easy, onstage costume changes. A shelf contains model sets that are projected on the back wall of the church via live video.
But Einhorn, like most playwrights who direct their own work, continues in his staging the problems inherent in his script. In this case, the trap that ensnared Einhorn was his overly faithful adherence to the book. "Cat's Cradle" should have ended at least a half hour before the lights go out.
Vonnegut had a vivid imagination and strong opinions. His work is filled with plots familiar to any fan of science fiction and infused with Vonnegut's ironic musings on the futility of life and the foolishness of humankind.
The principal character in "Cat's Cradle" is a writer named Jonah (Timothy McCowen Reynolds) who decides to write a book about what Americans did on the day Hiroshima was bombed. While researching his book, Jonah learns about the now deceased Felix Hoenikker, a Nobel laureate who helped create the bomb and also developed ice-nine, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
After a long and involved journey involving many people, Jonah eventually catches up with Hoenikker's children on the impoverished island of San Lorenzo, ruled by the dictator Papa Monzano (Darius Stone). Papa has a beautiful daughter named Mona (Michelle Rabbani) whom Jonah falls in love with.
The people on this island are followers of Bokononism, and worship by touching the naked soles of each other's feat. Bokononists believe people may fall into different groups. A karass is a group of people who work together, sometimes unknowingly to do God's will. A grandfalloon is a false karass, in other words people who think they have something in common but really don't. A wampeter is the central point of a karass. When Bokononists see an example of how interconnected everything is they say busy, busy busy.
In the midst of the Cold War, Vonnegut's books were a powerful commentary on Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). "Cat's Cradle" was a potent metaphor for meaningless activity; it is a game with no end, no purpose and no possible victory. There is no cat and no cradle. Now that we are threatened by no identifiable superpower, but rather by an enemy we feel is hidden all about and amongst us, there is something almost comforting about the imbecility Vonnegut exposes. But, unfortunately, his books are still relevant.
"Cat's Cradle" can still make a powerful statement
and at times this production can be intriguing. But too often it gets
bogged down in the intricacies of Vonnegut's language and over-involved
plot. Surely, Einhorn could have selected some of the major steps of Jonah's
journey, cut out some of the characters (there are close to two dozen
people onstage) and not diluted Vonnegut's message one bit.
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