From The Houston Chronicle - January 16, 1999
Sensitive Watch Reflects Best of
Classic
copyright 1999 Houston
Chronicle
Quiet dignity and understated
heroism are the hallmarks of
Watch on the Rhine, Lillian
Hellman's 1941 drama about
one man's struggle against
Nazism and his awakening of a
complacent American family
to the rise of fascism in
Europe.
Happily, Main Street Theater's
sensitive treatment of this
rarely seen classic glows with
the unaffected nobility,
humanity and compassion
Hellman intended. The
production even withstands
comparison to the fondly
remembered 1943 film version, in which Paul Lukas won
an Oscar re-creating his Broadway role as the anti-fascist
hero.
Set in the spring of 1940 at a country home outside
Washington, the play begins with matriarch Fanny Farrelly
and her household preparing for a visit from her daughter
Sara, with her German husband, Kurt Muller, and three
children. Fanny disapproved of her daughter's marriage 20
years earlier, and Sara, apart from fitful correspondence,
has been estranged from the family.
Sara's mother and brother David are curious about Kurt --
an engineer whose occupation and travels of recent years
have been shrouded in secrecy. When the refugees arrive, it
is clear they have come for a desperately needed rest: Kurt
is recovering from an illness and wounds (one of his hands
has been broken), Sara is careworn, and the polite but
hungry children plainly have suffered deprivations.
Two other houseguests are the penniless Romanian count
"Teck" De Brancovis and his American wife, Marthe, a
friend of the Farrelly family cast into this loveless marriage
by her mother. Unprincipled and opportunistic, Teck begins
investigating Kurt, eager to find information he can sell to
Nazis at the German embassy.
News comes that the Nazis have captured Kurt's longtime
ally; Kurt must return to Germany to try to bribe his friend
out of captivity. Teck discovers Kurt's identity as an
underground leader and sets out to blackmail him.
At first dumbfounded, Sara's mother and brother awaken to
the nightmare they thought was a world away, now
unfolding in their living room. As Fanny says in one of the
play's famous lines, "We're shaken out of the magnolias,
eh?"
New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson deemed Watch on
the Rhine "the finest thing Hellman has written" (she'd
already done The Little Foxes and The Children's Hour).
Experiencing the play again, it's hard to disagree. True, the
opening is loose-knit and talky, several attempts at
eccentric humor are ineffectual, and the nobility is
sometimes layed with a trowel.
Yet, driven by a powerful message, Hellman's skill,
sincerity and dramatic instincts assert themselves. From the
moment Kurt, Sara and the children arrive, the play finds
its center. Through a series of potent second-act
confrontations, thepoignancy of Sara consoling Kurt in a
low moment, then the final heartbreaking scene -- half the
audience was openly weeping -- the play grows in strength
and stature.
Patti Bean has directed subtly and superbly, bringing
delicacy to the play's loveliest moments -- Sara's touching
return to her childhood home, Kurt's reciting the lyrics of a
German patriotic song. Her thoughtful blocking underscores
key scenes.
After perhaps a too-discreet beginning, Fritz Dickmann
rises to the role of Kurt. He blends sincerity and
determination, refinement of spirit and weary dignity into
an affecting portrayal.
Erica Garrison is his match as Sara -- heartsick, yet sadly
resigned to what her husband must do. She is the very
model of a Hellman heroine.
Joan Fox is gustily amusing as Fanny, the imperious
matriarch whose tactlessness provides much of the humor.
John Kaiser makes Teck coldly calculating. Gwen McLarty
brings poise and sympathy to the beleaguered Marthe.
Andrew Dawson's David moves smoothly from affability
to assertiveness. Sheryl Croix is robust as Fanny's
impertinent maid, while Arthur Jordan plays a butler with
grace and good humor.
The children are excellent: Chris Joslin's sober Joshua,
Katy Lu Siciliano's soulful Babette and Evan Gravenstein's
little philosopher Bodo. They sustain Hellman's notion that,
denied childhood by their hardships, they are essentially
brave little adults.
Theater-lovers will love MST's Watch on the Rhine. Bring
handkerchiefs! Watch on the Rhine
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays,
4 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 14.
Where: Main Street Theater, 2540 Times Blvd.
by EVERETT EVANS
Tickets: $13-$18; 713-524-6706