“The Mannequin’s Ball” reviewed by Jacob Davis

***  Bruno Jasieński (1901-1938) was a radical political writer with an interesting, tumultuous life, even by the standards of Eastern European experimenters. An advocate for communism who was suppressed by the authorities or expelled from multiple countries during the interwar period, he ended up on the wrong side of a Soviet purge and got disappeared, leaving behind a body of work marked by the extreme social upheaval of the era. Among his works is a play, The Mannequin’s Ball, that can now be seen at Trap Door Theatre in a production directed by longtime company members Nicole Wiesner and Miguel Long, based on a translation by Daniel Gerould. A heated satire of organized labor, capital, and French politics as seen through the eyes of a mannequin impersonating a high-level politician, Trap Door’s production of The Mannequin’s Ball is full of clever ideas, skilled performances, and a chaotic sensibility.
Once a year at most, the mannequins of Paris’s fashionable clothing stores and workshops have an opportunity to throw themselves a ball while the humans who normally supervise them are convening at their own party with France’s elite. That they are sapient and capable of movement is a closely-guarded secret, as they fear they would be bolted down forever if discovered. So when a human (James Wheeler) tailgates a mannequin he mistakes for a woman into their ball, they take his head, and their leader (Shail Modi) adopts it as his own. The now human-headed mannequin uses his chance at freedom to attend the human ball, but the man whose identity he stole turns out to have been the leader of France’s largest center-left party, and he’d planned to use the get-together as a chance to secure his personal power by pitting labor leaders threatening a strike, rival heavily leveraged captains of industry, and communist agitators against each other. The poor mannequin has little idea of what he’s gotten into other than that it’s in his people’s interest for all the humans to keep fighting, and yet, the theme of exploitation is not entirely alien to him.
Jasieński was an innovator of new literary forms, and The Mannequin’s Ball is not a play that follows the writing conventions of its day, or of ours. We get a lot of world-building regarding the mannequins in the first fifteen minutes before they disappear, and even the human-headed mannequin leader largely fades into the background amid the human squabbling. Nonetheless, the human intrigues provide lots of opportunities for the directors to add song and dance numbers (original music by Danny Rockett) and clever choreography to accompany the verbal sparring. And Gerould’s translation of Jasieński’s text is a mouthful; every character has a silver tongue and most have a dry wit to match.
It takes a lot of talent to pull off a play that blends so many genres, but Trap Door’s cast is game for physical comedy as well as rhetorical acrobatics. Most of them play multiple characters, but are easy to distinguish and keep track of. Rachel Sypniewski’s costume designs, each a black shape with a purple sash and a bustle, as well as a mask for the mannequins, is just otherworldly enough to draw us into both the magic of the mannequins’ world and the heightened satire of the humans. The comedy of errors that Jasieński uses as his excuse for blasting institutional power is a bit thin, and hinges on the notion that a central bank would refuse to bail out a failing major corporation, even knowing that it will suck down the rest of the country with it if it were allowed to fall. It also presents the center-left and the far left as the only factions courting angry workers’ loyalty. Still, a lot of Jasieński’s barbs find their mark, and Trap Door’s style makes something fascinating and uniquely theatrical out of what they are given.

The Mannequins’ Ball will continue at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland Ave, Chicago, thru March 1, at the following times:
Thursdays: 8:00 pm
Fridays: 8:00 pm
Saturdays: 8:00 pm
Running time is ninety minutes with no intermission.Trap Door Theatre

Tickets are $31 with 2 for 1 admission on Thursdays. Special group rates are available. Visit www.trapdoortheatre.com or call 773-384-0494 or email boxofficetrapdoor@gmail.com
To see what others are saying, go to Theatre in Chicago   Review Round-Up and click “The Mannequins’ Ball.”