“Le Bal.” reviewed by Jacob Davis

*****  Typically, in shows at Trap Door Theatre, when the audience enters, there are already some actors onstage, silently performing in-character business until the house lights go down. But Le Bal, a newly devised play adapted and directed by Stephen Buescher, inspired by Ettore Scola’s film of the same name, broke new ground. Instead of a silent actor, we’re met by ensemble member Carl Wisniewski, a jovial fellow with a talent for clowning, working the crowd through out-of-character conversation. It’s during the main part of the play that the actors speak no words, instead silently performing, through metaphor, the major civil conflicts and changes in national identity over nearly the last century of the country’s history. For eighty minutes, Wisniewski, along with Dan Cobbler, Genevieve Corkery, Cat Evans, Emily Nichelson, Gus Thomas, and Jasz Ward, embody everything from talkie-era film stars experimenting with new technology, to activist protesters, to terrifying reactionary mobs.

Although the scenes encompass life since the Great Depression, they’re not in chronological order. Instead, once the lights go down, it’s time for the percolator, as cast members in the late 80s/early 90s costumes of Rachel Sypniewski vie for entrance to a very edgy club you have to be cool to enter. Most people seem to be having a good time; some are openly snorting coke; several are hooking up in the bathrooms. Indeed, one fellow has a very difficult time satisfying a woman due to his own ambivalence, but after gathering his courage, tries more successfully with another man. For a very brief moment the revelers experience sexual freedom, but then the male cast members rapidly fall ill, are placed in beds, and then under tarps. Buscher’s directing can change tones extremely quickly, and while not all the scenes start as comedic before turning sour, a recurring motif throughout the night is to peer beneath the escapism of pop culture to examine what is being escaped from.

Music and historical audio recordings, arranged by sound technician Danny Rockett, are an extremely important part of the show. After the house music of the initial scene, we transition to pre-rock pop of the 1950s, as the White female cast members don aprons with lots of tulle and lip-synch their excitement over the return of their husbands from tours of duty. Their silly, slap-stick conflict gives way to much grimmer racial resentment, as a Black couple is met with looks of bafflement and relegated to a smaller table at a nightclub where a Black stripper is performing. Through jealousy and scapegoating, this transforms into the White ensemble members beating the Black ones, and eventually, rioting until they are dispersed by what I interpreted as the National Guard. The scene again transitions to other bouts of unrest, both pro-Civil Rights and against them, indicated through music to continue from the Vietnam War to the present day.

From the riveting of World War II factory workers to oppositional funerals for cause célèbre victims, Buescher’s staging is a constant parade of ingenious devices. Even without playing named characters, the ensemble captures our fascination, and every kind of emotion, from delight and admiration to horror. Le Bal is, in form, much closer to a dance performance than what is usually categorized as a play (choreography is credited to Buescher, assistant director Miguel Long, and the ensemble themselves), and the actors’ physicality is both intense and precise. It makes me curious about what Le Bal would be like performed by a self-described dance company. As it is, the play is already an amazing experience, an examination of American culture that’s not like anything you can find outside of theatre, or even among most other plays.

Le Bal will continue at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland Ave, Chicago, thru June 20, at the following times:

Thursdays: 8:00 pm

Fridays: 8:00 pm

Saturdays: 8:00 pm

Sundays (June 7 and June 14) at 3:00 pm

Running time is eighty minutes with no intermission.

Tickets are $32 with 2-for-1 admission on Thursdays. Special group rates are available Visit Trap Door Theatre or call 773-384-0494 or email boxofficetrapdoor@gmail.com

To see what others are saying, go to Theatre in Chicago and click “Le Bal.”

Photo Credit: Michael Janicki