American Century Looks At Vonnegut, The Playwright
Is the conflict between the archetypal, masculine hero and the worship of a more contemporary, sensitive man still one that resonates decades later?
Happy Birthday, Wanda June, a play by Kurt Vonnegut (yes, apparently Vonnegut wrote plays -- at least this one, anyway). It was written in 1970, and the anti-Vietnam undertones are rather prevalent in this story; comparisons to the current conflict might have proven an inspiration for American Century to pick up this often-forgotten work and put it to stage again. But the work's more central question is about the relevance of a once-revered man, Harold Ryan (William Aitken, appropriately coarse but with some intelligence behind his bluster).
Ryan has disappeared for several years on a hunting expedition, to the point where the world considers him dead. He returns to his wife Penelope (the name isn't a coincidence), who is caught between two suitors and her husband's memory. But this Penelope isn't quite so steadfast as Odysseus' -- she's about to marry Dr. Norbert Woodly, a rather effeminate peacenik, by the time Ryan shows back up.
Vonnegut's clearly out to show that Ryan has become a relic, with his outmoded concepts of servile women beckoning to his every call, and solving every problem with the swing of the fist. But the character seems so inconsequentially dated that it's hard to get behind the conflict as one that matters; in an age where romantic heroes are much more of the Luke Wilson/Colin Firth variety, it's pretty clear the sensitive man has triumphed, and even if one longs for a more traditional masculine figure, it's not going to be one who slaps his women around with relish.
Aitken and Kari Ginsburg as Penelope help keep American Century's production together (Ginsburg has a non-overt sort of sex appeal and gets some of the show's best one-liners: "You know she has no feet!" she days in defense of a man too doting on his mother), but the play does suffer from some performance problems, which contribute to the play's often sluggish pacing. Crane's Woodly is a goofy caricature; Adin Walker never really emotes as Ryan's son.
Vonnegut's play frequently subverts the fourth wall, often clumsily, to juxtapose the action going on with the family with what's happening in heaven, where the titular character hangs out with Nazis and watches Jesus play shuffleboard. As a playwriting trick, it doesn't make for a seamless structure, but those scenes are often the most entertaining; it's almost too bad Ryan didn't stay with his third drunken wife (Deborah Rinn Critzer) -- she's kind of the life of the party in this rather tepid work.
Happy Birthday, Wanda June runs through March 29 at the Gunston Arts Center in Arlington. Tickets are available online.
Image courtesy American Century Theater