The narrator of Arthur Miller’s 1964 play “After the Fall” is that marvelous theatrical creature: the entertaining intellectual. In Theater J’s intense, immaculate production of the play, directed by Jos? Carrasquillo, Mitchell H?bert emphasizes up all wry humor and dry wit Miller packed into his main character, Quentin, a lawyer who lusts after a reasonable analysis of his universe. Quentin wants to make intellectual sense of his life, assessing his success based on the variety of women he has known, been attracted to, wedded, bedded, discarded. And although Quentin’s women are clearly differentiated, it’s obvious that the play is never about them: it’s about Quentin’s ability to understand their impact on his life.
The first woman to have absolute power over Quentin is his dominating mother, a role played with humor and intelligence by Kimberly Schraf. Shraf is also excellent in the role of Miller’s first wife, Louise, a savvy woman whose patience is tried to the breaking point by the egocentric, insensitive Quentin.
| Onstage |
| ‘After the Fall’ |
| Where: Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW |
| When: Through November 27 |
| Info: $35 to $60; 800-494-TIXS; boxofficetickets.com; theater.org |
Gabriela Fern?ndez-Coffey is incandescent as Maggie, an insecure young singer who catches Quentin’s eye, convinces him to marry her, then puts him through agony as she grows increasingly self-destructive. Although Miller denied that “After the Fall” was autobiographical, it’s hard not to draw parallels between Maggie and Marilyn Monroe, to whom Miller was married for five years.
The closest Quentin gets to real love is his affair with the down-to-earth Holga (Jennifer Mendenhall), a German who shares with him her sense of German history.
Some productions of “After the Fall” are difficult to follow since it is a non-linear memory play and it’s not always obvious what part people play in Quentin’s life. But Carrasquillo’s direction makes everything crystal clear. With all these women, H?bert effectively draws a picture of a cool, rational man determined to know himself.
Tony Cisek’s set is an abstract space made up of diagonal, oblong or circular lines. Dan Covey’s lighting uses the back wall of the stage to suggest various locations. Ivania Stack’s colorful costumes hearken back to the early 1960s, when the play takes place. And Kerry Waters Lucas, Dana Levanovsky, Tim Getman and Stephen Patrick Martin are outstanding in multiple roles.
Yet for all its technical know-how and brilliant cast, this three-hour-plus “After the Fall” leaves one wondering why its author couldn’t see how overblown it is in places, as Quentin muses on sex, fidelity, paternity, suicide, beauty and the House Un-American Activities Committee. While it remains a stunning vision of a man who puts himself on trial for possible moral failure, one has to wonder why someone, perhaps the original director Elia Kazan, didn’t suggest a little judicious trimming here and there.
