The Man From Earth
The Man From Earth
By James Bixby
Adapted by Richard Schenkman
Directed by Chuck Dent
Starring David Strauss
Renegade Theater at The JCC, Maitland, FL</strong>
The old saw “Show it, don’t say it” didn’t make it into this adaptation of a great 1960’s Sci-Fi story by James Bixby. John (Strauss) teaches college and at his farewell party he claims to be about 14,000 years old. Needless to say, his friends are skeptical. Artie (Alex Carroll) think he’s lying, Harry (Glen Howard) think he’s crazed or on drugs, and Dr. Gruber (Larry Stallings) want to psychoanalyze him. The women are relatively quiet until John claims to be Jesus, at which point Edith (Amy Pastoor) scream “sacrilege!” Tall tales are fine until they conflict with your own tall tales, but what everyone agrees is that there is no way to independently confirm John’s claims. Eventually his friends beat him down and he admits he made it all up. Then there’s a nice twist ending, but it takes a lot of butt time to get there.
What struck me about this script is there are a lot of actors hanging out on stage hoping for something interesting to do. You can only get so many drinks, and if Stallings hadn’t been packing a 45, this would have little more than an elaborate re-reading of a paperback story. The acting was good, Strauss was as full of himself as only 14,000 years of experience can make one, Pastoor seem offended by anyone questioning her beliefs, and Carroll gets mad and stomps off as well as I’ve seen. The few lines the girls did get came off well – Amy Schwartz was suitably cute and accepting of John’s wild story, but as an undergraduate, Linda (Rachel West) had very little to do.
“Man From Earth” is a good example of how hard it is to translate a story between media. In a short story long philosophical discussions are no problem, large casts never clutter the pages, and a poor dramatic arc doesn’t hurt so long as The Rule of Cool applies. The premise of a long lived but not exactly immortal man is a snappy Sci-Fi concept, but in this production it never leads to character growth or critical life altering decisions. Everyone has a nice argument, and then they go back to their orginal positions. That’s academia.
For more information on Renegade Theater, please visit www.renegadetheaterorlando.org
