Seeing Red, Part 1

Exploiting the sinister mystique of Soviet-era paranoia makes for riveting courtroom drama…and a sexy literary haven.

What In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Location: Connelly Theater
Date June 23, 2006 (The show has completed its run, but check out the Keen Company’s web site for future productions,)
Cost: $19 (I know, I know...My next post will be about something free, I promise!)
Bohemian Factor: Low
Geek Factor: Lower Than You’d Think

The extreme conservatism of the Bush administration, combined with the opprobrium it has incited among left-leaning New Yorkers, has in fact blessed every play that addresses war, greed, civil rights or corruption into an allegory jackpot for the downtown theatre community. But so many productions have been singled out by their directors, reviewers or PR agents for their incisive allusions to today’s headlines that I fear this phenomenon is becoming a bit of an irresistible trap, especially south of 14th street, (although admittedly, even blockbuster musicals appear to want to get a piece of the partisan pie.) I fear that referencing a war already unpopular with audience members also provides some a too-convenient dramaturgical shortcut, allowing director and playwright and actor off the hook when it comes to delving any script’s specific core ideas.

It is with that caveat in mind that I went to see “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” While I hesitate before using this space as a platform to review plays, especially those that have since closed, what I experienced was such a perfect example of audience-actor chemistry, that I find myself urging thoughtful theatre-goers to check out future work performed by the Keen Company, an off-off-Broadway company, whose mission is, apparently to produce sincere plays. Given my wariness when artists of any kind renounce irony, my eyes were beginning to roll before I’d even bought my ticket.

But I could save myself the trouble (or at least, my ocular reflexes). If anyone has earned the right to invoke the most fearful predictions on where our current leaders are taking us, Carl Forsman, artistic director of Keen Company, certainly makes the case. The play was written in 1968, with the shadow of McCarthy era memories lingering not too far behind. In Heinar Kipphardt’s script, physicist Robert Oppenheimer, infamous for his role in overseeing the construction of the world’s first atomic bomb, is facing the humiliating and career-decimating circumstances of losing his security clearance at the elite Los Alamos laboratory, the same lab where his leadership brought him stardom the previous decade. While the conclusion of the US’s engagement with Japan brought the scientist stratospheric fame, the grisly comprehension of his role in the mass destruction at Hiroshima haunted Oppenheimer, understandably reticent about launching a nuclear arms race with the Soviets. During his hearing before the board of the Atomic Energy Commission, Oppenheimer, portrayed with endearing humanity by Thomas Jay Ryan, faced accusations that the US’s inability to manufacture an even more lethal hydrogen bomb with the haste desired by the Eisenhower administration was a result of his communist sympathies and other “unpatriotic” inclinations.

This play is not unique in focusing on Oppenheimer, whose multidisciplinary gifts and artist-size angst has made him a popular biography subject in every possible medium. While a three-hour courtroom drama with a minimum of action might sound like a hard sell, the monologues of testimony (and, as a courtroom drama, there are a lot of these) are a mini-roller coaster ride, teasing audiences with alternating doses of certainty, doubt and suspense as to whether the voices of reason will triumph against the draconian steps of a hawkish government. Of course, over three hours, no one would actually care about this question at all if the characters faltered in commanding our sympathies. Contemporary parallels were discreetly implied, except when zealous audience members started to clap as a character defended civil liberties or bitterly condemned the excesses of the anti-communist hysteria. The understated delivery, and the subtlety of the idea war set up by the script didn’t call for this (the applause quickly died out quickly, as it became clear that this kind of response just didn't fit into the world created by the play, in which no one loses their composure, no matter how irate- or demoralized- they become.)

May plays about science, of late, have taken on the form of raucous pastiche cabarets, and well, this is definitely not one of those. It is somber and gradual, but the able cast of actors imparted real fear, particularly the prosecution. The deeply impassioned and articulate arguments, presented by actors Rocco Sisto and Matthew Rauch were terrifying in the forcefulness of their logic. In a country in the grips of an anti-Soviet frenzy, the well-intentioned defense team, with its cohesive but self-righteous blandness, is no match for this kind of ardor, especially coming from those who genuinely believed they were fighting for freedom, democracy and of course, mom and apple pie.

But the primary reason I felt that the show is squarely in the middle of the kinds of entertainment I consider to be populist, despite its esoteric subject matter, was because of what happened during intermission: everyone in the audience turned to their neighbors, to ask them what they thought. On a Friday night, a young couple -typical of east village denizens - entered into heated but cordial dialogue with a group of theatre-goers in their 60’s, all lingering in the rain to debate the parallels to today and whether Oppenheimer has sold out on his friends. Then of course, the conversation turned to where they all had dinner reservations. Well, it is New York, still after all. And three hours is a long time to sit on an empty stomach.