Monday, January 13, 1997
THEATER:
Playwright uses spirit of absurd theater to present a mother’s
attempt at getting grandsonsBy Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Contributor
Checkerboard floors, talking paintings of dead lovers, jello
dinners and purple-haired actors spontaneously bursting into song
seem to come directly out of the 1960s theater of the absurd.
"You Shall Give Me Grandsons," playing at the Marilyn Monroe
Theatre, is not an example of absurd theater, which uses the
nonsensical to reflect an irrational world, but it reflects its
spirit. About a mother who desperately tries to get her homosexual
son to marry and bear her grandsons, the German farce uses
absurdity to lighten the potentially heavy material.
The Lee Strasberg Creative Center, in conjunction with the
Goethe-Institute and Villa Aurora, presents the American premiere
of a new German play by Thomas Jonigk.
"Grandsons" is part of the Goethe-Institute’s goal of providing
access to German language and culture abroad and the Lee Strasberg
Creative Center’s tradition of presenting new voices in theater.
Three cast and crew members  director Burkhard C. Kosminski,
set designer Meike Urban and actress Yutah Lorenz  are part
of the artist-in-residence program at the Villa Aurora.
The three German artists hope to enrich the cultural life of Los
Angeles by contributing to a prize-winning as well as very
controversial play. The play is controversial, because playwright
Jonigk attacks every and any moral issue.
"He goes against the Catholic Church. He goes against gay
society, against the family, against the mother, against marriage,"
Kosminski says. "And because he Ãs against everything and
doesn’t take sides, I think he comes right to the point of did we
really overcome all the issues? I mean with political correctness
and all, did we really overcome (the issues) or did we just think
that we overcame them."
Kosminski feels that Jonigk is attacking political correctness
and the belief that we have given lip service to accepting, without
being genuinely tolerant. However, "Grandsons" presents both
conservative and liberal views. Because both views invoke strong
reactions, it forces us to re-evaluate how tolerant we are of
opposing opinions.
"We say we are very open with homosexuality. We say, ‘No
problem’ or ‘Man and woman are equal,’ but when you really look at
it … there is a serious problem. (Just saying it) doesn’t work
and I think that’s where the play gets its message," Kosminski
says.
The play is not only confined to one message though. It projects
many messages and ideas about religion, family, money and society.
The set design reflects this wide-reaching attitude of
"Grandsons."
"Set wise, I think I really left it more abstract," Urban says.
"It’s not going into any one direction. It could be any time
period. I think this is important, because it’s a never-ending kind
of story. It is a subject that could happen anywhere. It’s also not
really necessarily German either."
The universality of the play is also manifested in the fact that
the majority of the characters do not have formal names. The mother
is called Mother and her son is named Son.
"One character is named Norma, which is an American name, but in
Germany it means something like 7-11, like a very cheap shop,"
Kosminski explains. "All of these things like ‘priest, a man of
god.’ Jonigk just gives functions and then he puts out themes with
these functions. It’s like a soccer team or basketball team. Every
player has a certain function. The plot is very simple, but out of
these functions he throws out themes. He puts out these really big
images and then he goes on."
"Grandsons" throws out questions without attempting to resolve
them. Kosminski suggests that the audience simply sit back and be
entertained, instead of actively trying to analyze the play. There
is meaning to be found, but it moves quickly.
For example, in one scene, the mother asks her son how he became
homosexual and the son answers that he always kept the house clean.
This bit of dialogue is funny because it plays upon the stereotype
that gay men make good housekeepers and is absurd because it does
not answer his mother’s question.
Lorenz who plays the marriage candidate, Maria, elaborates,
"There is the thought that it is a sickness to be gay. But the
house is always clean so there couldn’t be a sickness in the house.
There are not little animals carrying germs.
"However, you have to think about that. It is so quick. If you
really want to understand all these things you would have to go and
see the play 10 times. I go for the first time to enjoy it," Lorenz
says.
The difficulty in understanding the play comes from the fact
that it does not progress along traditional lines of logic.
"There is somehow kind of a line, but it’s not a logical line.
It’s more like a picture," Lorenz says. "There’s something here.
There’s a tree and next to a tree there’s an animal and you know it
all fits together if you (step back). But if you are (up close) and
you say, ‘Oh that’s a tree. Oh there’s a bicycle. How do they go
together?’ But if you just (step back) you go, ‘Oh, yeah.’"
Because it is a very dense play, full of difficult issues, there
have been several misunderstandings regarding the play’s
controversial ideas.
"Casting this play was at times quite difficult," recalls Urban.
"I mean I remember this case where this one actress did very well
on he audition. Then she got the play to read and she actually said
she didn’t want to do the part. She said, ‘Well, I’m not against
man. I’m not for castration. I can’t do this part.’ I think it is
very interesting that there could actually be a misunderstanding
like this arousing from this play. Obviously this play doesn’t say,
‘Sure it’s really good to have a man castrated. That’s not the
point at all."
Kosminski adds, "It’s, for actors, a very risky play, because to
touch themes without a solution, it’s very easy to get put on one
side of it. I think what works well is that we don’t take sides. If
you take sides then it could be very dangerous.
"We just pull out the guns, shoot them, but we don’t take
sides," Kosminski continues. "We show different paintings of
different themes with no solution to them. And then people start
talking after the show. They come together and talk, ‘What did you
think? What did that mean?’ Already we’ve started a discussion
which I think is a very beautiful thing."
Lorenz is also enthusiastic about stimulating the audience’s
thoughts. She wants the play to open their minds to wider
possibilities.
"I want the audience to get a kick," Lorenz says. "A little kick
that brings them maybe to fantasy, maybe to thinking, maybe to
looking at things differently, but just a little kick."
THEATER: "You Shall Give Me Grandsons" runs through Jan. 26 at
the Marilyn Monroe Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard. TIX are $10.
For more information call (213) 650-7777.
"Grandsons" is part of the Goethe-Institute’s goal of providing
access to German language and culture abroad …Lee Strasberg
Theatre Institute
While a picture of The Father, played by Scott Crawford, watches
from the background, other members of the cast from "You Shall Give
Me Grandsons" try to enjoy a festive repast.