The Great Escape Stage Companyin Marshall recently concluded its production of “Bach at Leipzig.” WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review.
The audition of seven German musicians vying to fill the role of church organist in 1722 might not initially seem fertile ground for comedy. But Itamar Moses’ script for “Bach in Leipzig” is populated with eccentric period characters, humorous witticisms, running gags, and comic misunderstandings.
Despite struggles to achieve full lift off in Act One, the opening night production I saw in Marshall generated a warm response from an appreciative audience.
The play follows the efforts of the candidates competing for the revered and prized post. They scheme to outfox and eliminate one another in hopes of improving their chances for the money, status and power awarded to the winner.
Complicating the intricacy of this plot is the frequent and half-baked citing of religious, aesthetic, and philosophical ideas influencing actions by the characters in and around Leipzig, an important center of German culture.
If all that sounds like a mouthful of historical gobbledygook too rich to sort out in a two-hour stage play, well, it is. Here program notes could have enabled greater insight into playwright Moses’ overly ambitious references to the unfolding Age of Enlightenment and yielded a more lucid perspective.
Problems also arose from the cast’s delivery of text-heavy lines. Several performers struggled with Moses’ verbose, meandering speeches. The result was that the strategies and actions of characters were often unclear.
Line difficulties in the first act also prevented several key exchanges from reaching their intended momentum.
Act Two, however, yielded much more in the way of laughter. As the play’s action accelerated and rivals were pitted against each other in verbal and physical conflicts, the characters and their respective motives were revealed in stark relief.
One of the show’s more appealing performances was rendered by Charles Burr as Kaufmann. Burr’s “unbelievably credulous fool” mistakes the treachery and machinations of his rivals for the rehearsal of a play within this play. His character delivers deliciously misguided critical commentary that displays blissful ignorance of deeds designed to destroy him and others.
Ellen Bennett’s steady performance as Fasch helped guide the audience through numerous twists, turns, and surprises. She embodied the continuity needed to bridge the jump forward in time at the play’s conclusion.
Despite problems with reciting the text, Robert Starko’s droll, offhand delivery, helped him create a character whose measured and reflective demeanor concealed the diabolical nature that lies beneath.
Antonio Barroso, as the swashbuckling womanizer Steindorff, showed the audience the arc of a character who falls from the peak of confidence to one bewildered by his own undoing.
An epilogue featured a brief retrospective of both the music and genius of Johann Sebastian Bach. This scene helped lift the action and tone of this frequently funny show, as well as problems encountered during the performance, from the ridiculous into something at least approaching the sublime.