Largo Desolato
Largo Desolato
By Vaclav Havel
Directed by Lani Harris
Starring Andrew Clateman, Melissa Mason, Courtney Moors
UCF Conservatory Theatre, Orlando, FL</strong>
There are plays written for presentation, and there are plays written for suppression. The old Soviet Block generated most of the latter, and “Largo Desolato” feels typical of the genera. In an ill defined time and place, neurotic author Leopold Nettle (Clateman) awaits incarceration for a rather thick philosophical tome that sounds less readable than Das Kapital. An efficient police state insures he has no appeals, so he waits, afraid to even go for a walk. His wife Suzanne (Mason) openly dates his best friend Edward (Jo Crandall) and exchanges pleasantries with Nettle’s mistress Lucy (Moors). The potential of a gloriously public prison term absorbs him, leaving no time for writing. Nettle finds to his dismay that notoriety brings its own problems as a steady stream of weirdoes pass through his parlor, each hoping for salvation from this balding little man.
While there is a clearly delineated under-current of menace “Largo Desolato,” there’s plenty of slapstick – maybe even too much. Nettle’s physical comedy is superb, and coupled with his Ringo Starr look and Groucho mannerism he draws nearly all the laughs in the show. Rather than finding occasional humor to break tension, we are never sure whether to laugh or cower. Lucy seems more like a wife than a girl friend, and Suzzana seems more a drop-in guest than a ccuckquean wife. More comic action comes from the Two Sydneys (Kyle Crowder and Michael Cox) who bury Nettle under stacks of tedious documents pilfered from the paper mill. They’re goofy high school students who represent the Common Man, but not as well as the creepy Three Chaps (Nathan Smith, Blake Borah, and Brandon Peters.)
This show feels long, and many of the jokes wore out before the dialog did. Havel repeats large blocks of text, which does have an interesting effect when said by the differing power centers of the story, but only at first. Despite these flaws, this is a rare show and worth seeing just for bragging rights. The line between hallucination and paranoia can easily blur, particularly when fear drives all open statements behind a veil of illusion and non-prosecutable culpability. If nothing else, this shows how a few decades in a totalitarian society can teach you a sense of humor – there is no other way to survive.
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