Review by Neal Newman
January 21, 2023
Quintessence Theater is presenting WAITING FOR LEFTY by Clifford Odets. Having read and reread Harold Clurman’s THE FERVENT YEARS or A LIFE by Elia Kazan, any theater disciple knows this play. The 1935 opening night was one of the great violent openings in American Theater history. Sure, it’s agitprop, describing a union meeting preparing to vote on a pending taxicab drivers’ strike, but the power and commitment of the era still manage to thrill. The performers are capable, and the piece has a positive energy.
A director must make a choice. Will this be like Quintessence’s recent CAMILLE, where an old war horse is resuscitated and accurately offers the audience a chance to experience the emotions of a past era? Or should the play be modernized to reflect current conditions for an audience who may not know or care about the play’s history? This production evidently tries to do both and succeeds at neither.
Odets wrote the play on-demand from a union theatre group by locking himself in a hotel room and writing at white heat. His devotion to his cause was so great that many modern critics have called his plays overwritten and fruity. Try this whopper:
Edna: Your boss makes this subject. I never saw him in my life, but he’s putting ideas in my head a mile a minute. He’s giving your kids that fancy disease called the rickets. He’s making a jellyfish out of you and putting wrinkles in my face. This is the subject every inch of the way…When a man knocks you down, you get up and kiss his fist! You gutless piece of boloney.
Imagine a young actor presented with this. What can you possibly do with it? It’s written in a thick lower-class New York accent (which has pretty much died out), in a unique rhythm that is known only to Odets.
The answer is clearly outlined in Elia Kazan’s autobiography.
WAITING FOR LEFTY was “energetic, lighthearted, bold, and sassy. And felt! The emotions were those in our hearts: anger at what existed, demand for a change, and confidence that the change—you know which—would come. The lines didn’t sound learned; they leaped out of the mouth at the moment. Still, the total effect was surefooted and confident, which is how we felt.
This scene of Edna and Joe, played by Angelica Santiago and Doug Harris, is heading in the right direction. Joe comes home from a failed shift as a taxi driver. He discovers his furniture has been repossessed. His wife is furious with him. He cringes as his masculinity is threatened, as a man’s place in life is to provide for the family. The profits go to the fat cats who own the taxis and the corrupt union officials. She demands action. Action for change. Don’t just complain; get out there and fight.
As played on opening night, the scene was adequately delineated but lacked the depth of passion Odets demands. Every ounce of the character’s being and emotional makeup must be challenged. We must believe that Joe has put in five grueling hours and that Edna is exhausted after a horrible day as a depleted housewife. Perhaps this vignette will deepen as the production continues.
Another scene depicts a young doctor who has strangely been removed from operating on his patient. The reason is that another MD has political and donor connections and deserves the glory. It doesn’t work, and the patient dies. Then the young doctor discovers he is fired. Why? Because he is a Jew. The actors yell and complain loudly, but the audience is cold. The necessary depth of feeling is generalized.
The director’s intent is confusing as well. The attractive setting by Lindsay Fuori evokes a 1935 union hall with a compelling clenched fist backdrop, inventively lit by Elizabeth M. Stewart. The costumes by Zhang Yu are all over the place. Some actors wear period-era jackets and long underwear, while others have modern tennis shoes, earrings, haircuts, and talk on plastic phones. Sound designer Chris Lane uses rock and other music to bridge the vignettes, and the final moments when the cast yells STRIKE! is accompanied by a noticeably modern audio rumble. According to current conventions, many male roles are played by women who are not very effective, except for Katherine Perry, who powerfully exposes a false out-of-town witness trying to stop the strike.
Director Kyle Haden has some staging problems as well. Odets calls for a raised proscenium stage, with the cigar-puffing Mr. Fatt at the center and the “offstage” performers surrounding the action in a semicircle. Haden is forced at Quintessence with a movie theater-style stadium seating. While he does fulfill Odets’ directions, he places Fatt and the observing actors on a raised platform where they unnecessarily dominate the action. This means the dramatic scenes are staged on the floor, allowing minimal space and difficult viewing for the patrons in the higher rows of seats. The locations become static, needing inventive staging to clarify the actor’s moods and changes. Indeed a better groundplan must exist for this configuration.
Many of the play’s memorable moments are missing as well. Buzz Roddy is convincing as Fatt, but it is unclear that he is a corrupt union leader whom the union members despise for trying to stop the strike. And where are the famous “plants” in the audience, actors who pretend to be audience members but who begin shouting as the commotion builds to a climax?
The passion required is undoubtedly detailed in today’s news. Look at the footage of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations or, dare I say it, the marches pro and con for abortion. The commitment is there. Can it be translated to Odets?
Quintessence performs at 7137 Germantown Avenue in Mount Airy. You can purchase tickets at the box office, by phone at (215)987-4450, or online at quintessencetheatre.org.
Running time: One hour without intermission.