Incident at Vichy
Incident at Vichy
New York Calling: Theatre/ Wolf Entertainment Guide
William Wolf
March 17, 2009
Arthur Miller’s “Incident at Vichy,” first staged in New York in 1964, is getting a suburb and chilling revival by The Actors Company Theatre (TACT). Originally underappreciated, the play speaks to us profoundly with the added perspective of passing years, thanks to the excellent cast’s ability to bring Miller’s wise writing to life and to the incisive, masterly direction by Scott Alan Evans.
Set in German-occupied Vichy, France, in 1942, the play depicts a group of people in a detention room after having been rounded up at random to be checked as to whether they are Jews and/or whether their papers are in order. There are various types ranging from a silent, bearded Jew to an upscale citizen confident he has the right papers and can clear up the matter quickly. One man is nervous and fearful. Another has a royal title. There is a Nazi commander and a French official, and one by one the detainees are taken behind a door to be interrogated.
What the director has accomplished is to make the tone so intimate that the tense, argumentative talk among the waiting characters seems utterly real and devoid of histrionics even though there is plenty of polemic in their conversation. The production is mostly low-key, compelling us to hang on every word. The result is a stage filled with tension that expresses the frightful time and the tightening terror against Jews in the Holocaust.
However, it is clear that the primary focus of the play is not the Holocaust itself. It is on the extent to which individuals are willing to take a stand and take risks in the face of persecution of fellow human beings. Miller slowly builds the situation into an emotional climax. By inference, although the play was set during World War II, its main issue continues to be applicable given the genocide and starvation taking place in parts of the world today, raising the questions of how much is being done to alleviate the suffering and to what extent the world stands by and lets evil happen.
Scott Bradley has designed an appropriately stark set, and the play, performed without intermission, quickly becomes engrossing and keeps up the tautness. The director permits no letup. The cast, performing as a well-tuned ensemble, includes Jamie Bennett, Richard Ferrone, Todd Gearhart, Jack Koenig, Ron McClary, James Prendergast, Gregory Salata, Mark Alhadeff, Christopher Burns, Jeffrey C. Hawkins, Leif Huckman, Russell Kahn, John Freimann, Michael Oberholtzer and Dan Stowell.
Arthur Miller was a playwright with a conscience and his works ingeniously delivered a sharp viewpoint while at the same time being good theater. “Incident at Vichy” not only demonstrates his skills but shows why his work can be so durable. Congratulations to TACT for reminding of Miller’s strengths and this significant moment in history via this stirring, harrowing revival.