The Baltimore Waltz

The Baltimore Waltz is a play by Paula Vogel, which had a workshop at the Perseverance Theatre in 1990 and made its Off Broadway premiere in 1992. The play is about a brother and sister who appear to be taking a European trip and is based on Vogel's and her brother Carl's real life experiences.

Overview

Essentially a series of comic vignettes underlined by tragedy, the farce traces the European odyssey of sister and brother Anna and Carl. They are in search of hedonistic pleasure and a cure for her terminal illness, the fictitious ATD (Acquired Toilet Disease) she contracted by using the bathrooms at the elementary school where she teaches. Knowing her life is nearing its end, Anna is driven by a lust that compels her to have casual sex with as many men as possible during their travels, a passion shared by her gay brother. Assisting the pair is the mysterious Third Man, a reference to the classic suspense film starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, to which Vogel frequently alludes in detail.

The play actually takes place in a hospital room in Baltimore, Maryland, where Carl has a terminal illness, and Anna is imagining the trip that the two never took.

Background

The play was Vogel's response to the 1988 death of her brother Carl, who died from complications due to AIDS before they were able to enjoy a long planned European vacation.[1][2]

Vogel wrote the play during summer 1989 at the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire. The play is dedicated To the memory of Carl - because I cannot sew. The printed script contains a letter from Carl to Paula, dated March 1987, discussing his funeral ceremony.[3]

Production history

The Baltimore Waltz was first produced in a workshop at the Perseverance Theatre (Molly Smith, artistic director; Deborah B. Baley, producing director) in Juneau, Alaska, in October 1990. [4][3]

The Baltimore Waltz premiered Off-Broadway at the Circle Repertory Company (Tanya Berezin, artistic director), running from January 29, 1992 to March 15, 1992. It was directed by Anne Bogart, with Cherry Jones as Anna, Richard Thompson as Carl and Joe Mantello as the Third Man. Set design was by Loy Arcenas, costumes by Walker Hincklin, lighting by Dennis Parichy and sound score by John Gromada.[5][3]

1992 Obie Awards went to Vogel for Best New American Play, Jones for Best Performance, and Bogart for Best Direction.[6]

It was staged at the Yale Repertory Theater, New Haven, Connecticut in May 2003, directed by Stan Wojewodski Jr. By then it had become one of the most popular plays for regional theatres throughout the United States.[7]

An Off-Broadway revival produced by the Signature Theatre Company and directed by Mark Brokaw opened on December 5, 2004 at the Peter Norton Space, where it ran through January 2005. The cast included Kristen Johnston as Anna, David Marshall Grant as Carl, and Jeremy Webb as the Third Man.[2][8]

Critical response

J. Wynn Rousuck noted in her review of the 1992 production in The Baltimore Sun that "...it becomes clear that the play's overriding -- and saddest -- fantasy is a fantasy of denial. Gradually, the truth about the disease, the European tour and even the identity of the patient begins to impinge on the wacky, offbeat tone..."[9]

Malcolm L. Johnson in his review for the Hartford Courant of the 1992 Off-Broadway production wrote: " "The Baltimore Waltz" sounds like one of those cutesy, self-indulgent, even tasteless new plays that can make theater-going a dreaded experience. Yet despite all those things -- no, in large part because of them -- Vogel's uproarious, searching and finally devastating creation adds up to the very best of theater. Even to say that this is the theater's most deeply felt and richly expressed response to the AIDS plague is to diminish its powers."[10]

Ada Calhoun wrote of the 2004 revival in The New York Magazine: "...the show succeeds as a loving tribute and political statement, as theater it’s stuck in an odd realm between rollicking farce and whimsical melodrama."[11]

References

  1. ↑ Brustein, Robert. "'The Baltimore Waltz". (Circle Repertory Company, New York, New York) The New Republic, (highbeam.com), April 13, 1992
  2. 1 2 Isherwood, Charles. "Theater Review | 'The Baltimore Waltz'" , The New York Times, December 6, 2004
  3. 1 2 3 Vogel, Paula. " 'The Baltimore Waltz' history" "The Baltimore Waltz", Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1992, (books.google.com), ISBN 0822213591, p. 4
  4. ↑ "'Baltimore Waltz' and Other Plays, The" tcg.org, accessed November 30, 2012
  5. ↑ Rich, Frank. "Theater Review. Play About AIDS Uses Fantasy World To Try to Remake the World" The New York Times, February 12, 1992
  6. ↑ Obies, The Village Voice, accessed October 31, 2016
  7. ↑ Klein, Alvin. "Theater. At Yale Rep, 'The Baltimore Waltz'", The New York Times, May 16, 2003
  8. ↑ Sommer, Elyse. "Revival review" , curtainup.com, December 4, 2004
  9. ↑ Wynn Rousuck, J. "'Baltimore Waltz' is a funny, moving drama about AIDS", The Baltimore Sun, April 9, 1992
  10. ↑ Johnson, Malcolm L. "Vogel's Stylized `Waltz' Is A Moving, Powerful Triumph", Hartford Courant, February 16, 1992
  11. ↑ Calhoun, Ada. "Theater Review. 'The Baltimore Waltz' ", New York Magazine, accessed October 29, 2016

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.