THE BASICS: The Subversive Theatre Collective has dug up an old Langston Hughes drama about striking agricultural workers in Depression-era California, condensed it, and woven in some of Hughes' more radical poems and a selection of vintage union songs. This mélange, brainchild of Kurt Schneiderman, Subversive-in-Chief, plays weekends through March 20th at the Manny Fried Playhouse on Great Arrow. HARVEST runs nearly two hours, with a single intermission. Sunday evenings are Pay What You Can.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: Migrant cotton pickers--white, black and Hispanic--band together in an attempt to get a living wage out of the !@?#$%! farm owners, but their strike comes to a brutal, heart-rending close. This is bare bones "social drama", remarkably unsubtle. That said, its heart is in the right place, and there are some sanguine parallels to the present day.
THE CAST: When you are working as close as this to "old time mellerdrammer", it's difficult to keep from turning in gross caricatures. Those playing cops and farm owners here seem to be breathing fire, and bellow endlessly. The big advantage is that you can hear them above the Great Arrow building's noisy heating system. Among the Good Guys, I particularly liked Martha Rothkopf as Marty Dobbs, a tough-and-tender Ma Joad type. Hasheen DeBerry gives an appealing youthful zeal to emerging labor leader Mack Saunders. And Gary Darling, straddling the Good/Bad divide, delivers three nice, diverse characters, none overstated. Way to go!
PRODUCTION VALUES: HARVEST is showpiece of sorts for the Subversive Theatre Collective, and Kurt Schneiderman, working on an obvious shoestring budget, has done some good things. For one thing, we're given a nice, palatable mixture of scene, poetry and song. Schneiderman gets punchy, in-your-face readings of many of the poems, which highlight Hughes' relatively unknown radical side (There's an ode to Lenin, for example). The set is rudimentary, but a central scrim is used to fine effect in the farm owners' meetings, where the villains are seen only as large, distorted silhouettes. Paul Stephenson's period costumes pass muster. Silver-haired Jean Dickson gives the interpolated union songs a mellow, folky quality. I particularly liked the Intermission Song, which I suppose was her own invention.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This Rainbow Coalition play is way too black-and-white, and there is a certain inescapable amateurishness to the proceedings, but kudos to the STC for their enthusiasm, vision and daring. Union members in attendance can be proud of their valiant, indispensable predecessors. Chris Collins and friends ...need not apply! Dwelling on the positives, I'm rounding this one up to...
RATING:
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THUMBNAIL SKETCH: Migrant cotton pickers--white, black and Hispanic--band together in an attempt to get a living wage out of the !@?#$%! farm owners, but their strike comes to a brutal, heart-rending close. This is bare bones "social drama", remarkably unsubtle. That said, its heart is in the right place, and there are some sanguine parallels to the present day.
THE CAST: When you are working as close as this to "old time mellerdrammer", it's difficult to keep from turning in gross caricatures. Those playing cops and farm owners here seem to be breathing fire, and bellow endlessly. The big advantage is that you can hear them above the Great Arrow building's noisy heating system. Among the Good Guys, I particularly liked Martha Rothkopf as Marty Dobbs, a tough-and-tender Ma Joad type. Hasheen DeBerry gives an appealing youthful zeal to emerging labor leader Mack Saunders. And Gary Darling, straddling the Good/Bad divide, delivers three nice, diverse characters, none overstated. Way to go!
PRODUCTION VALUES: HARVEST is showpiece of sorts for the Subversive Theatre Collective, and Kurt Schneiderman, working on an obvious shoestring budget, has done some good things. For one thing, we're given a nice, palatable mixture of scene, poetry and song. Schneiderman gets punchy, in-your-face readings of many of the poems, which highlight Hughes' relatively unknown radical side (There's an ode to Lenin, for example). The set is rudimentary, but a central scrim is used to fine effect in the farm owners' meetings, where the villains are seen only as large, distorted silhouettes. Paul Stephenson's period costumes pass muster. Silver-haired Jean Dickson gives the interpolated union songs a mellow, folky quality. I particularly liked the Intermission Song, which I suppose was her own invention.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This Rainbow Coalition play is way too black-and-white, and there is a certain inescapable amateurishness to the proceedings, but kudos to the STC for their enthusiasm, vision and daring. Union members in attendance can be proud of their valiant, indispensable predecessors. Chris Collins and friends ...need not apply! Dwelling on the positives, I'm rounding this one up to...
RATING:
I mostly agree with the reviewer, and laughed at the Chris Collins line at the end. However, the play misses an important opportunity to draw parallels to our current anti-labor environment. Unions are still relevant, helping workers earn a living wage. Non union works have benefited from the rights won by the unions. So why are so many low wage workers against them????