Washington Shakespeare Company's 'Lulu' needs a little mystery
By: Barbara Mackay
Special to The Examiner
November 24, 2009
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Director lightens the harsh with a lively cast, but the title character lacks
If you go"Lulu"
Where: Washington Shakespeare Company, 601 S. Clark St., Arlington
When: Through Dec. 15
Info: $21.50 to $36.50, matinees are pay-what-you-can; 703-418-4808; washingtonshakespeare.org
When Frank Wedekind strolled down the Champs Elysees in 1892 and envisioned his play "Lulu," he thought of it as "a gruesome tragedy." And indeed the story is gruesome. It documents the life of an amoral woman who toys with the emotions of everyone with whom she becomes involved: men and women, rich and poor, her husbands, her lovers. In one way or another, Lulu destroys them all, until she, too, is grotesquely destroyed.
The Washington Shakespeare Company's current production of "Lulu," which uses Nicholas Wright's crisp adaptation, does not alter the negativity of Wedekind's script, but director Christopher Henley lightens its harshness with lively, humorous portrayals of the many characters who surround Lulu.
Henley underscores Wedekind's anti-bourgeois attitudes, poking exaggerated fun at the pompous, self-aggrandizing citizens in Lulu's world. Two of them, Dr. Schoning (Angel Torres) and Dr. Goll (Allan Jirikowic), have fallen under Lulu's spell as the play opens.
James Finley plays the self-conscious, naive young painter, Eduard, who paints Lulu's portrait and instantly falls in love with her. Finley is even more impressive in the final scene, when he returns as the maniacal Jack to confront Lulu, who has gone from lover to lover in Germany, moved on to the high life in Paris and finally ends her existence as a penniless prostitute in London.
Karin Rosnizeck is notable as Countess Geschwitz, the woman who obsessively devotes her life to the uncaring Lulu. Frank Britton is affecting as the Marquis Casti-Piani, an oily operator who threatens to expose Lulu for her crimes.
Yet an important element is missing in this production: A compelling title character, who must be earthy and dissolute, yet a mystery, set apart from the world of ordinary mortals. Sara Barker is appealing as the pretty, playful Lulu who takes on and discards lovers with astonishing speed. But in the end she seems just a heartless flirt, not an extraordinary voluptuary, capable of driving others to distraction and death. And without Lulu as a central all-powerful enigma, the play's effect is significantly diminished.
