Michael Kaye

 

                                           by Julia Polinsky

 

                                   C. P. Taylor’s Good, as produced by the Potomac Theater Project, fails to evoke pity, or fear, or even unease, so much as confusion. So: not so good, as a play, a production, or a polemic.

 

Set in Germany in the 1930s, and apparently intended as…

 

Well, authorial intent is anybody’s guess, barring C. P. Taylor’s note on the play, in which he says, “It still seems that there are lessons to be learned if we can examine the atrocities of the Third Reich as the result of the infinite complexity of contemporary human society, and not a simple conspiracy of criminals and psychopaths.” The Play as Political Statement. The Play as Warning. The Play as Examination of Psychology.

 

Not, unfortunately, The Play as Story. 

 

The Potomac Theater Project chooses to produce “provocative work with political resonance,” and the implication made with the choice of Good is: we better watch it, b/c the same damn thing is happening all around us, while good people do nothing. The parallels between 2016 in the US and the 1930s in Germany are clear, and in case you miss them while you’re watching the play, the program helpfully has notes about Eichmann, Germany, and Donald Trump. 

 

Michael Kaye and Adam Ludwig                               photos by Stan Barouh

 

There. Now, you don’t need to see the show. And why would you? Not for the picture painted of the incremental ratcheting of callousness, as one of the most cultured, sophisticated societies in the Western world lurches toward horror. Not for the curious use of music as a sign of insanity – the central character, John Halder, first speaks of how music “came to him” when the Nazis came to power, and the play has a soundtrack that’s apparently all in Halder’s head. The music illuminates Halder’s mind, but in the Potomac Theater Project’s production, it makes no sense.

 

You would not go see Good for the excellent performances – there is exactly one excellent performance, given by the splendid Judith Chaffee. Nor would you see Good for the confusing and alienating lack of affect from Michael Kaye’s performance as John Halder, as he grows less and less able to connect to the people around him.

 

Michael Kaye & Valerie Leonard

 

Granted, most of those people are quite unpleasant – the horribly depressed wife (Valerie Leonard), his desperately frightened Jewish friend, Maurice (Tim Spears),

 

Caitlin Rose Duffy

 

or Caitlin Rose Duffy as Anne, the sweet young student who breaks up Halder’s marriage. Unpleasant, yes, and the author even throws in Eichmann and Hitler, ramping up the Unpleasant People Factor.

 

Still, unpleasant can be attractive. But. If your lead actor doesn’t manage, somehow, to make himself, somehow, at least appealing enough that the audience cares about him? Why bother? Kaye gives us a Halder as shallow as the reflections on his eyeglasses. Halder, who promotes euthanasia, joins the SS, selects and burns books – as long as he can keep his own copies – abandons his wife and children, and eventually gets posted to Auschwitz, where the music in his head is finally outside, out loud, played by prisoners, and the world is as crazy as he is: Kaye’s Halder is hollow.

 

Good? Not so good.

 

Good by C. P. Taylor

Presented by the Potomac Theater Project, in their 30^th anniversary season

July 5- August 7, 2016

At Atlantic Stage 2,

330 West 16th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)

866.811.4111

Tickets, general admission, $35; senior/student, $20: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/34274