Old Wicked Songs sheds doubt on the theory that the truth lives between two differing points of view. Left, right? Old, young? Christian, Jew? Truth must be somewhere in the middle, no? Not always.
Playwright Jon Marans' first move in this gambit scrutinizes the possibility of absolute good or absolute evil. What you find beautiful must be art, and, of course, it is good. But is there ever beauty in the art of your enemy? And is it good if you and your enemy find the same beauty in the same art?
The play is an encounter between two musicians: Hoffman the student and Mashjan the teacher. Hoffman is a young American looking forward to his career, Mashjan an old European looking backward on his. Social, political and religious differences arise as they work together through Robert Schumann’s song cycle, Dichterliebe.
Their inner lives are reflected in the music…a piece which needs youthful passion to interpret it, but requires experienced mastery to play it. Actors Louis Colaiacovo and Saul Elkin would seem well assigned to their respective halves in this dichotomy and well matched to go up against each other.
Music seems unable to calm the savagery between Mashjan and Hoffman. Their conflict is reflected by the play’s setting--Vienna 1986. In that time and place, Kurt Waldheim was elected president of Austria, despite revelations that in his own youth he had been a member of the Nazi party between 1938 and 1945. Does the world changed if the new answers only reword old questions?
On its surface, the details of post-Holocaust guilt prevent the possibility of a harmonious relationship between the two. At its core, a sense of humanity impels them to try.
Old Wicked Songs, a play by Jon Marans directed by Sheila McCarthy for Jewish Repertory Theatre, starring Saul Elkin.
June 7 - July 1 Musicalfare Theater on Daemen College Campus 4380 Main Street, between Harlem and Getzville Roads) Amherst. For additional information: 688-4114 x334 or jewishrepertorytheatre.com.