Ari Charles September 29, 2013 CAP Drama Green Quarter One Live Play Review: After The

Revolution

After The Revolution, written by Amy Herzog and produced in its regional debut by Theater J, focuses around Emma Joseph (Megan Anderson), the director of a Marxist charity fund that advocates for the release of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal which is named after Emmas late grandfather, the patriarch of her progressive family. Emmas father, Ben (Peter Birkenhead), however, in a slip of the tongue, tells her that her grandfather had been blacklisted years prior for his un-American activities, and she must come to grips that her lifes work is associated with someone widely seen as a traitor. Emmas various relations try to console her, but in the end she makes the decision to step down as director, lost as to what to do with her life. After The Revolution prominently features a theme of betrayal. Emma feels betrayed by her father, and ultimately her sister, Jess (Elizabeth Jernigan), too, once it is revealed that she had known about her grandfathers tarnished reputation years prior. Most of all, though, Emma feels betrayed by her grandfather, who she blames for causing all of her problems in the first place a condemnation that betrays Emmas own belief in her cause. The acting upheld the suspension of disbelief throughout. Andersons portrayal of Emma incorporated the characters mood perfectly through voice inflection and physical movements and the rest of the Joseph family support that in much the same way in particular Birkenhead in his role as father Ben. Jess contrasting nonchalant behavior towards the whole affair, meanwhile, was also exemplified by Jernigans laid-back posturing and speaking.

Ari Charles September 29, 2013 CAP Drama Green Quarter One Live Play Review: After The Revolution

The production was not rich in music, though: the only music featured played during the brief interludes between scenes, and even then the selection mainly generic-sounding classical pieces that did not fit the play terribly well. The tracks were upbeat, which did match Emmas overall frenetic actions, but otherwise contributed little to the enjoyment of the overall production. The stage was fairly small and irregularly shaped it was deep but not wide, and came within arms reach of the front row seats. During one scene, the actors actually left the stage and stood in the aisle so that they could pretend that there was a greater distance between characters than they could successfully portray on the stage alone. The set was designed by Misha Kachman. The costumes did nothing to add to or take away from the production. All of the characters wore fairly average street clothing button-down shirts and khakis or denim pants for the men; a blouse and corduroy pants for the women. The costumes were designed by Kendra Rai. The lights were red to reflect the plays Marxist undertones and also very dim. Instead of a spotlight focusing on the characters, the entire stage was lit at the entire time, with only a minor emphasis on the current action. Red string lights that would not have looked out of place were they decorating a holiday tree were instead draped over a red curtain hanging from the rear wall, creating subtle changes in the lighting every couple of seconds. The lighting was designed by Andrew Cisna.

Ari Charles September 29, 2013 CAP Drama Green Quarter One Live Play Review: After The Revolution

The staging and directing could have been better, though, and while the production was confined by the small stage area, the choice to have Jess blow large puffs of cigarette smoke directly into the audience, or have scenes where characters supposedly in separate cities who are talking on the phone still be standing two feet apart from each other physically, though, could have been avoided. Furthermore, almost the entire play consisted of two-person scenes featuring Emma and another character talking about mainly the same thing Emmas misgivings about her grandfathers blacklisted status. While that was more of a decision on the part of playwright Herzog, it began to feel formulaic after a while, with only a few scenes focusing on more of an ensemble cast. Overall, Herzog and Theater Js After The Revolution, while not perfect, is still an enjoyable and socially provocative way to spend two hours at the theater, and managed to uphold a high production quality despite somewhat limited physical resources. It was not bad theater by any means and thats the ruler by which all live productions of the sort should be judged.