We don’t see enough Clifford Odets plays in the UK, and when we do it’s the same two or three. Though not up there with the greatest 20th Century American dramatists – O’Neill, Tennessee Williams & Miller – his story and his work are interesting enough to warrant more.
This was his first play to be staged; he broke off writing Awake & Sing to produce it as a response to a taxi drivers strike. Odets was a communist and contemporary of Arthur Miller & Elia Kazan. In the US, it was staged by left-wing collective The Group and in UK by Unity Theatre, treading a similar path, whose legacy trust is supporting this rare revival – one of the trustees and former Equity president, actor Harry Landis, was at the White Bear Theatre last night to bring insight to a post-show Q&A.
It’s staged as a union meeting, with characters coming out of, and speaking from, the audience, broken up by vignettes where some of the characters tell their personal stories. In just 50 minutes, we see the tension between those who want to strike and those who don’t, together with the hardship that exists and would worsen should they do so, with swipes at the perceived oppressors and their apologists.
It’s production today is timely and the modern staging echoes this. I saw it in the same week as a fresh piece of agitprop, If You Won’t Let Us Dream…, at the Royal Court and, frankly, it’s better. Young director Christopher Emms has staged it ‘without decor’ and has drawn committed performances from his 11-person cast (large for the fringe). It’s particularly effective when the characters tell their personal stories direct to the audience, though the comments of other characters whilst they do jarred a bit with me.
It’s 30 years since this fascinating piece was last staged here, so lots of gold stars to the White Bear, the director and the company for giving us the opportunity and to the Unity Theatre Trust for supporting them.
