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Regional Reviews: St. Louis The End of the World Cabaret Also see Richard's reviews of La Cage aux Folles, Prayer for the French Republic and Dead Man's Cell Phone
But The End of the World Cabaret also stirs up images of growing repression, with its occasional sneering jackboot, as told by a cast of great performers and off-stage technicians for Upstream Theater. They create a timeless sense of human folly in the American premiere of the writings of a Weimar Republic satirist, translated and slightly updated with lots of panache at the Marcelle Theatre, under the taut and ringing direction of Lizi Watt. The 90-minute collection of skits is translated and set into a fine linear structure by Artistic Director Philip Boehm, with a splendid agit-prop feel to it and the same withering political sensibility we've read about in the productions of America's Federal Theatre Project, which was part of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. This new show's acerbic blackouts come down to us from the original comic writings of Jura Soyfer, a young Ukrainian-Austrian Jew in Vienna, in the days before the Nazis seized control of central Europe. He died in the filthy conditions of Buchenwald in 1938 in his mid-20s. But Soyfer's indefatigable spirit strikes a modern chord now, with references to crass consumerism and even a few new references to "fake news" that add modern resonance. It's the often beautiful story of a scientist (Chris Tipp) who is ignored after discovering a comet streaking toward Earth. And his discovery triggers the same ambivalent reaction on stage that we see now, toward global warming nearly a century later. The comet is drawn into the solar system after a deliciously "modern" conference between the sun (Jane Paradise in robes and tiara) and the planets around her, played by some of our finest local actors. Their stage looks simple at first, a cylindrical obelisk on a celestial map, before that strange monument transforms itself from one scene to the next, thanks to the great set designer Patrick Huber. An expressionistic, bilateral conference over the world's impending destruction is played out in a dreamlike sporting match between France (Amarachi Kalu) and England (Isaiah Di Lorenzo), under the watchful eye of a formal line judge (Sara Wilkinson). But both sides suffer from the same nationalistic delusion, that their own individual homelands can weather the destruction, while it must surely wipe out their foolish neighbors. Lavish costume changes, all done in a trice, shift focus from the stars to the Earth, and from Europe to America, with great outfits designed by Meredith LaBounty and Anabel Weiland, with additional help from Nola Buehler. At the outset, Ms. Wilkinson is pensive as the Earth, lost in confusion, scrubbing away a human infestation with silent balletic grace. Later she she's terrific as a giddy, wicked Hitler, jealous of all the fearsome power of the comet. The scientist Peep (Mr. Tipp) goes from capital to capital, beseeching the world to make ready. Meanwhile, Patrick Blindauer is clever and varied as a series of international reporters gather the bewildering news that the human race would much rather fiddle while their collective Rome burns. John Flack is dazzling as a grandiloquent Moon in scene one, and later as a greedy street singer. His scenes are where much of the 1930s style really comes to life, just a short grapevine-step away from the previous vaudeville era. It all fits together quite smoothly in Mr. Boehm's adaptation, though it certainly helps to have a cast including Equity actors adding invisible networks of coherence to each scene under the direction of Ms. Watt. Mr. Di Lorenzo and Ms. Paradise add gritty humor as street cleaners, plucking scraps of cataclysmic news out of the gutter. And Ashwini Arora is delightful as a dimwitted Pluto, and later a comically bewildered Indian correspondent in the show's frequent moments of man-in-the-street reporting. In another appearance, Ms. Paradise convinces us that a good hot cup of coffee will make even a doomsday brighter, in a radio commercial come to life. Elsewhere, Mr. Blindauer returns in drag in a mad scene with Ms. Wilkinson as a caged parrot, in which the actor appears as a hausfrau, gloating over her preparedness, even as a talkative bird turns everything she says into its opposite. Somehow the wordplay manages to sound not like wordplay at all. Caitlin Mickey sings beautifully in tribute to Marian Anderson and plays a German journalist who boasts that her country will make the world great again, regardless of the impact. Mass media reassures the radio audience and the newspaper reader that the comet amounts to just another fad. A strange mood develops, in lock-step with all the money-making propositions tied to the comet's arrival, as if human greed and self-satisfaction had taken on a life of their own, like mad robots marching forward, destined to outlive us all. The sound design by Aidan Siliceo-Roman deserves special mention, transporting us like a magic potion back to the beginnings of World War II. The props by Maria I. Straub are quite impressive, with regular lyrical choreography by Dawn Karlovsky and a fitting score by music director Joe Schoen. Paige Brubeck composed the musical accompaniment, with additional transcription by John Dorhauer. The beautiful stellar map on the stage floor was designed by Mr. Huber and painted by Max Florida. Near the end, there's a modern version of Noah's Ark, along with its arbitrary "door of mercy." But the play has a wonderful, uplifting ending, which really seems beautiful at first. Then, a half hour later, I found myself wondering if it was just another trap for lazy minds: a beautiful folk song sung by Mr. Tipp that hides a vast eternal joke–and another false hope for a species that can't begin to imagine its own demise. The End of the World Cabaret, produced by Upstream Theater Company, runs through May 3, 2026, at the Marcelle Theatre, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive, St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.upstreamtheater.org. Cast: Production Staff: * Denotes Member, Actors' Equity Association |
