Review - Good

When I was in high school, our drama teacher suggested we all join the Fireside Theatre book club and read plays.  Since reading was my passion from an early age, and theater was becoming my passion, I quickly joined.  I was a member of Fireside, off and on, for years, and treasure the scripts that survived all of my moves over the years.  One of the scripts I particularly enjoyed was C.P. Taylor's Good.  I found the idea of how a supposedly 'good' man could become a Nazi a very provocative one.  When I was in undergrad, our summer theater did an excellent production of Good, some of which is still in my memory (which is kind of amazing since I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday).  During grad school and my years at a community theater, I always suggested the play for production, but no one ever took me up on my suggestion.  All of that is to say that I've been thinking about this play for over 30 years and when a discounted ticket came up on TDF for an Off-Broadway production, I immediately hit the 'buy' button.  It was a sobering evening at the theater.

This election season is an especially apt time to be producing Good.  Watching an intelligent, well-reasoned man rationalize himself into the Nazi party, then the SS, and then into his horrifying position at the end of the play rather mirrors how some people have been persuaded to leave their reason behind over the last few months.  Watching a man whose first priority is the easy way out, the way that gives him the most security and comfort, was also quite chillingly current.

photo credit: Stan Barouh

Good is a horrifying tragedy, with many comic and musical interludes.  It's part memory play, part stream of consciousness performance art.  I think this particular production was less successful with the comedy and the music (instead of live musicians interacting with the cast, we had recordings that often weren't at a high enough sound level to have much of an effect), but the acting, especially from the lead actor, was mainly very strong and that made the second act and the arc of the play pretty compelling.

There were some odd, weak directorial choices, but there were also some very strong and powerful statements as well, especially the end of the first act and the end of the play.  I was quite breathless both times, and the power of those scenes made me forget some of the weaknesses that came before.  Plus, again, everything seemed so relevant and timely, at times it was scary. Listen to what one of the characters says (this quote is taken from my Fireside Theatre copy of the script):  "Hitler's got all the power he needs now. They're bound to drop all that racial shit they had to throw around to get their votes... They can't afford not to.  I know that... But I can't believe it."  When I heard that, I gasped.  And there's no way you can't be horrified by what happens at the end.  The lights went out, the audience sat there for a moment, then the applause started.  And then...

We all rather quietly walked out of the theater and across the lobby to the elevator to take us back upstairs to the exit.  I was still pretty shaken by what I had watched.  When we got on the elevator, one of the audience members said, "Well, we're all watching the rise of another regime right now!"  Everyone in the elevator nodded.  And then someone else said, "On both sides!"  And everyone else in the elevator nodded.  I thought, wait, what?!  These are intelligent, well-reasoned, savvy, NYC-theatergoing people and they can say THAT?! More horror, as far as I was concerned.  I may have cried all the way to the subway.  And had more realizations that this kind of thing can happen any time, anywhere. And that scared me again.  So I guess producing Good now DID do what it set out to do, but not in the way that I expected.