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A CurtainUp Review
Tales From Red Vienna
By Elyse Sommer
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"Now remember, you must be very careful with her. She''s the fragile sort. Wasn't raised
to survive on her own. Like a wounded bird lost in a wood."— "Mutzi"von Fessendorf to the Hungarian journalist whom she's introducing to her widowed friend Helena Altman. Though suffering the loss of her husband as well as financial security, Helena is strong enough to survive and heal those "lost bird" wounds.
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 Nina Arianda and Michael Esper (Photo: Joan Marcus
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Tales of Red Vienna is the work of David Grimm, a playwright whose plays have always been inspired by historic events and characters. I still have vivid memories of my first Grimm play, Kit iMarlowe, a fast-paced, fascinating bio-drama about the Elizabethan playwright, spy and sexual adventurer. The "Tales" he tells about "Red Vienna" are in a slower, more Chekhovian pace with a theme reminiscent of Ibsen's exploration of women's roles, especially at the end.
While Grimm's play is hardly on a par with either Chekhov's or Ibsen's classics, it is the sort of well-made, attention holding drama that they used to but don't make any more, with a plot that takes its time to unfold, complete with two intermissions — and, in this case a too sudsy climax.
The post World War I Vienna scene centers around three women: The widowed and impoverished Helena, who unlike a never seen friend in similar circumstances, has avoided discovery of her own excursions into the underground world once unknown to society women . . . her more fortunate and opportunistic friend since childhood, "Mutzi" von Fessendorf . . . and Edda Schmidt, Helena's devoted housekeeper.
With Nina Arianda who burst onto the New York stage with her sizzling performance in Venus in Fur has a less high voltage, less pulse raising role as the widow. her more laid back Helena requires the sizzle to build more gradually. Though the play opens with a bang that reveals Helena's secret life, its explosion into a tale of passion and personal growth comes bit by bit, and with numerous cups of coffee served with a dash of "schnaps" (brandy).
Arianda is definitely the star of this enterprise, but the ever magnificent Kathleen Chalfant is also very much a star attraction as the oldest of the three women around whom the play revolves. While she's portrayed many tragic characters, Chalfant managed to invest even her terminally ill Dr. Vivian Bearing in Wit with wry humor. The comic heart of Mr. Grimm's play beats in her Edda Schmidt. As she told Playbill's Harry Haun, this is her chance to play the wise-cracking confidante once owned by Thelma Ritter and Eve Arden.
As was the case with Ritter and Arden, Chalfant's housekeeper has some of the play's best lines; for example, she encourages Rudy (Michael Goldsmith), a young Jewish grocer, to direct his love for the much older and non-Jewish Frau Altman to someone more appropriate by pointing to a Jewish girl's grave and dryly declares "Here is a girl for you. Zdenka Waldner. Nineteen years old and guaranteed not to run away."
Tina Benko completes the female triad as the play's nominal villain. Benko's "Mutzi" and her never seen husband are the kind of people who manage to navigate their way through a war with the only change in their fortunes being the loss of their Count and Countess titles. From Mutzi's first flamboyant entry it's obvious that if she is your friend, you don't need enemies.
To avoid being a spoiler, suffice it to say that my reference to "Mutzi" as the play's meany, is the result of her introducing Helena to Hungarian journalist Bela Hoyos (Michael Esper). What seems like doing her friend a good turn is really her way of covering up her own relationship with Hoyos. When things don't work out as planned, count on Frau von Fessendorf's vindictive side to surface.
As for Esper and Arianda's relationship, don't count on it to be smooth sailing either, especially since there's another character named Karl Hupka (Lucas Hall) who will make his appearance well into the second act. I've seen and liked Esper in a variety of roles. His most recent as a nebbish gay writer in The Lyons is quite a remove from the convincingly passionate journalist now on stage. He wouldn't have been my first choice, but his performance is creditable enough to win me over, as he does Helena.
Kate Whoriskey has the benefit of a fine team of designers to create an atmospheric visual setting to allow the action to shift between Helena's apartment and the cemetery holding her husband's memorial (no grave as his body was never found). Peter Kaczorowski's lighting gives an aura of mystery to out first view of the hallway and living room of Helena's apartment. The scenery shifts are so organic that we hardly notice that cemetery uses the apartment's upstage area. Anita Yavich has dressed everyone to fit the period, with especially mouth watering outfits for the two young women. (These designers were also on board for both the Off and On Broadway productions of Venus In Fur.
It would have been helpful for the Playbill to include more information about the play's setting and what it foreshadows. While the "Red Vienna" period which lasted to 1934 had its upside in terms of social equality, the severe inflation that rocked Austria and Germany in the early 1920s made it likely that even the von Fessendorfs would finally have their fortunes take a downward spin. And by 1923 Hitler was already making his presence felt in Austria so that any tales about people remaining in those countries, are unlikely to have a happy ending. One can only hope that young Rudy got away before the Anschluss and mass victimization of Jewish Austrians, even if they fought for the Kaiser in the War.
For those of you who don't mind spoilers or are reading this review too far from New York to catch this production, I'm including more plot details in the yellow box at the end of the production notes.
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Tales From Red Vienna by David Grimm. Directed by: Kate Whoriskey Cast: Nina Arianda (Helena Altman), Kathleen Chalfant (Edda Schmidt), Tina Benko ("Mutzi" von Fessendorf), Michael Esper (Bela Hoyos), Michael Goldsmith (Rudy Zuckermaier);, Lucas Hall (Karl Hupka) Sets:John Lee Beatty Costumes: Anita Yavich Sound: Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen Lights: Peter Kaczorowski Hair & Wig Design: Tom Watson Fight Director: Thomas Schall Stage Manager: Bryce McDonald Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including 2 intermissions MTC at New York City Center Stage I 131 West 55th Street From 2/26/14; opening 3/18/14; closing 4/27/14 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at March 15th press matinee |
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