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| A Play is a Poem |
There is nothing more confusing in the literary world than a poem. It's one of the few styles that aren't usually restricted to form or sensible meaning. There is a depth to every line and word choice that makes one difficult to find a universal meaning to, or at least without a scholarly mindset. For playwright Ethan Coen's latest show A Play is a Poem, he applies this logic to the world of theater throughout American history. He finds small moments and opens them up to find something more absurd, even thought-provoking. It's what he has done with this play of five one-acts, which range from stuffy period dramas to Hollywood pitch meetings. What connects them all? The truth is that little literally does. But for those willing to sit with the stories, they will find something richer in this approach.
With his brother Joel, Ethan has had a storied career making films like Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Their most recent film, 2018's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, feels like it has a passing resemblance to A Play is a Poem. Both shows feature what amount to vignettes with very little connective tissue. They range wildly in tone from broad comedies to melodrama and even murder stories. It's the type of formula that he has brought to the midwest sensibilities of his work, and here Ethan goes even further into his own abstraction, with help from director Neil Pepe. Together they attempt to explore five dissonant stories with the hope of finding something deeper to say about the American experience. As the playbill will be quick to note, Coen and Pepe have rarely discussed what the connective tissue actually is. If nothing else, that makes the mystery surrounding the show all the more exciting and at times even frustrating.
Each story is presented with interludes by Nellie McKay, who has composed music ranging from ukulele songs about murdering animals, to a Marlene Dietrich-style celebrity impersonator who will make everyone sound like the same deep, effeminate person. Considering that the show starts with McKay doing this voice as "James Earl Jones" and promising to take away unwrapped candy and return it at the end of the show, it's an absurd form of niceties that keep cropping up throughout the show. Does McKay yodeling as the set is being changed add anything to the bigger story? It's not always clear, especially since the songs are often comical. She is a chanteuse, serving as a glue to the show. The only issue is that sometimes it feels more like she's huffing it than using it for its intended purpose.
Those who love The Coen Brothers movies will find plenty to love in the diversity of these one-acts. If there's any fault, it doesn't have the polish of their movies and the brevity often means that things end unresolved, forcing the audience to put together their own story as the lights dim for the next one. It's a fun way to use theater, but it also means that the show could end abruptly, defying expectations and forcing a sense of occasional disappointment. This is not a show to be immediately consumed and have an opinion on. It is best to chew over the pieces, understanding what the secret ingredient is. In a lot of cases, the answers don't come until there's been exhaustive time spent away from the show.
The five one-acts are wildly different from each other in ways that keep the surprises alive. The first one, "The Redeemers" follows a murder story that involves breaking a body into three pieces (you won't guess how) to hide under a cabin's floorboards. "A Tough Case" follows and is a noirish tale of a detective trying to break in a new partner. The third (and weakest) is "At the Gazebo," which is an Edith Wharton-esque romance about a man who finds his affection for his girlfriend fading after a trip to France. "The Urbanes" is a lower-class tale, not unlike The Honeymooners, about a man trying to have a modicum of success amid a bitter marriage and friends who have had a string of luck. The final story, "Inside Talk," is a comical pitch meeting meant to skewer Hollywood (the Marc Taper Forum is a perfect place to see it given its closeness to the subject) with absurd ideas like "Das Boot on a train."
On the surface, these shows have nothing in common. Even their tones are just that different that each new act's introduction comes like whiplash. It's a testament to Coen's writing that he's able to make these pieces largely compelling and different, finding core elements of these characters within a short period that make their struggles feel relatable. While there's been little academic analysis of A Play is a Poem to suggest this, the show's underlying theme is about redemption for the American dream. In each of the stories, there's a hook that comes towards the middle that reveals how a character is unable to experience redemption, whether it be of a friendship ("The Redeemers"), respect in a career ("A Tough Case"), love ("At the Gazebo"), personal achievement ("The Urbanes"), or saving a person's corrosive reputation ("Inside Talk"). They all arrive differently, some in disappointing emptiness, but they all capture a desire for something greater than never comes the way that they want it to.
The cast is in top form, delivering each segment with comedic and dramatic bravura. As a whole, Ethan Coen's latest is a bit more muddled and challenging than his cinematic output would suggest. Then again, so is poetry by nature. It's not meant to make total sense at first. While the pieces separately work, together it's the audience's job to fix the puzzle in their image. It's the lasting impact that the show wants to leave, and it mostly does so with great energy. There are some lulls throughout the show (notably in "At the Gazebo"), but the show proves that the power of interpretation can enrich a show, giving meaning to something that seemed pointless at the time. Those wanting direct connection or even a satisfying conclusion will be sorely disappointed. Those wanting to embrace the absurd and wonder how yodeling and detective stories connect together will have a better time, even though it can be a rough road at times.
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