WAITING ROOM OF THE DAMNED
Incident at Vichy
New York Post
Frank Scheck
March 19, 2009
TEN scared-looking men sit on two intersecting benches in German-occupied France, nervously waiting to be called into a room by the Nazis who will decide their fates.
Such is the premise of Arthur Miller's little-seen 1964 drama "Incident at Vichy," which, like many of Miller's plays, combines moments of harrowing power with windy speechmaking.
There's a haunting Beckettian quality to the piece, now getting an excellent production by The Actors Company Theatre, that compensates for its more pedantic elements. Indeed, as the figures enter the room one by one, never to be seen again, it soon becomes apparent that the genial advice offered by one of the Germans - "Don't be alarmed, it's only to check your papers" - is not to be believed.
Unfortunately, the play's power is reduced by the too-obvious hand of the author. The 10 prospective victims have the sort of representative range seen in bad war films: there's a Gypsy, an elderly Jew, a doctor, an actor, a blue-collar worker, a little boy . . . even an Austrian prince.
While awaiting their fate, they engage in pretentiously philosophical arguments about the arts, politics and the nature of evil ("None of us is alone, we're members of history"). Admittedly, one line, about whole races being "slaves to the stock market," revealed an uncanny prescience.
The drama is most effective in its chilling details, such as the actor's description of how the Nazis measured his nose to determine whether he was Jewish.
Director Scott Alan Evans has elicited finely nuanced performances from the 15-actor ensemble, and his staging features many haunting touches, such as the ominous music and blackouts that accompany the gradual introduction of the characters.
Despite the play's flaws, the troupe is admirable in fulfilling its mission - resurrecting neglected works by important playwrights.