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Also this issue: A-Plus William Kowalski ICA Exhibits Gloria: Another Look at Feminist Art of the 1970s New Edge Mix Performance Series |
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January 16-22, 2003
theater
Don¹t be fooled by the title: Emmy is no country singer. ³Her Man² is Hermann Göering, Hitler¹s second-in-command -- and, since Der Fuehrer was a single man, pretty Emmy herself was designated First Lady of the Third Reich.
German theater artist Oliver Reese's Emmy Göering is less play than pastiche. When the Göerings' daughter gave Reese permission to use Emmy's autobiography, the author promised he would not invent a word.
Instead, Reese slyly put together a two-character text collage. He uses Hermann's lunatic ramblings ("If God had wanted everyone to be equal, he would not have created different races"), taken from factual transcripts of the Nuremberg trials and other sources, and counterpoints them against Emmy's own self-dramatizing prose.
Before her marriage to Hermann, Emmy (née Sonnemann) had been an actress, and her autobiography is all showbiz narcissism. So for Emmy, politics initially take a back seat to furthering her career. She is aware -- dimly -- of Hermann's fanaticism, but more interested in the prospect of finally hitting the big-time (a major theater gig in Berlin). Through ironic juxtaposition, Reese seeks to indict the Göerings and show us both their bourgeois banality and the magnitude of their guilt.
The approach works -- to an extent. The action occurs between 1932 and 1947, from the rise of the Reich to its inglorious end and aftermath. We see the couple move from shallow self-interest to genuine craziness. Hermann, bloated and addled with drugs, dresses up as Nero and Madama Butterfly. Emmy puts a bowl of gems on the coffee table as lesser housewives would put out pretzels, and watches as Hermann paws them.
But that's about the limit of the character development, and Emmy Göering is ultimately sunk by the limitations of its dramaturgy. Emmy and Hermann are infantile egomaniacs: We understand this within the first 10 minutes, and the remaining 80 intermissionless ones bring no additional insights.
The boyishly handsome Patrick Doran plays the young Hermann as a kind of glad-handed insurance salesman type -- it's a clever choice, but shows its limits as the evening wears on. As Emmy, Elizabeth Hostetter is all kittenish mannerisms -- perhaps the real Emmy was just like this, but it's tough for us to watch. Joe Koroly's setting gives us the Göerings' lodge, more horrific for its hominess -- their daughter's picture shares shelf-space with Der Fuehrer's.
Emmy Göering Stands by Her Man, through Jan. 26, Theater Catalyst at 2nd Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-4330
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