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 copyright 2000 |
When Ken Vega decided to work on Heartfield
he was challenging both himself and his future audience. The life and
work of John Heartfield are
complex and intriguing, and so rich in information they could be the source of more than one musical. One can understand why it was so difficult for him to part with some of the material,
and why, at times, the play digressed from the central story. There are obviously too many interesting details about the historical period, as well as the creation of new artistic movements Dada
and Photomontage .
The complexity of the textual content is sharply juxtaposed with the simplicity of the musical content. It is almost surprising that the author did not chose a less typical musical language for Heartfield, but very recognizable style of an American musical. I was half expecting him to approach the music in the same Brechtian and montage style as the script. For example I thought he would refer to Eric Satie, first and with John Cage only Dada composer. Vega chose to make an homage to Kurt Weill, but the choice was, in my opinion, more in his To use only the piano as a music source gave the spectators the feeling of the cabaret atmosphere in Berlin between the Wars, but the halls of that time were smaller and the actors did not have to compete with the instrument in order to be heard. The Theatre Project space is relatively small, but even there some of the spoken words were impossible to hear. Maybe microphones would help, but they would surely change the sound balance. There are few possibilities for this problem, i.e. different positioning of the piano, preparation, placing of some 'barrier' between the piano 'corner' and the audience, etc, and they all could visualy fit into the montage style of the play. Heartfield is not completely balanced in content and length, and Vega would probably want to work further on revisions of the book and the score. The story of Heartfield's childhood in the first act is unnecessary, and there are two strong songs (We Can Change the World" and "Exile's Tango")competing for the status of the 'finale' of that act. The second act is a digression from the main story of Heartfield's life, and although there are some interesting songs, such as "Unter den Linden", (maybe the only one close connected to the Weill's tradition) I was expecting more from the 'Italian" music than just an imitation of the accent. The third act did not support a sense of climax, but maybe that was to be expected after almost thre! e hours of the performance. In the next to last performance which I saw, the actors were very enthusiastic, and were awarded with a warm response from the audience. It was obvious that the mostly young team needed the support from the spectators in order to give, in their own opinion "the best performance" of this short run. Heartfield needs the audience with the prerequisite knowledge, and I would like you to learn more about this production through musical's official web site. Heartfield was performed at Theatre Project in Baltimore, from April 27 to May 7 2000. |
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