Next Week's Extended Plans: Building Stage's The Ring Cycle
By Julienne Bilker in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 4, 2010 9:20PM
In his program note, Building Stage Artistic Director (and Ring Cycle co-Director) Blake Montgomery explains the company's choice of programming during unstable economic times in which many theatre companies have folded. "If we were to produce art in this climate, we wanted to offer a show that simply couldn't be missed, something bold and outrageous, something unheard of - not simply something easy to do in difficult times." Adapting Wagner's 16-hour, four-part opera Der Ring des Nibelungen into a six-hour play is certainly a bold, outrageous move, although presenting works of epic length is not without recent precedent - we're reminded of last year's Neo-Futurist adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude, which we loved. Strange Interlude was successful because it swallowed the original piece and spit it out Neo-Futurist-style, without fear. In its fearless moments, when it embraces its own whimsical and fresh style, The Ring Cycle is brilliant. Unfortunately, these moments didn't quite hold us for six hours. However, the show will be split in two Thursday, March 11 (Act I) and Friday, March 12 (Act II) only - we have a feeling it will work a bit better this way.
The Ring Cycle is broken into four parts, corresponding to Wagner's original operas: "Rhinegold," "Valkyrie," "Siegfried," and "Twilight of the Gods." Although it's one long continuing story, there are enough twists and turns that we're going to forsake our usual plot summary. Inspired by German and Norse mythology, it's a truly fascinating tale filled with intrigue, murder, love, fun creatures and powerful imagery, the latter two being this production's specialties. We've loved the flexibility of The Building Stage since the first time we set foot in the theater, and the design team behind this show, led by Lee Keenan and Meghan Raham, takes full advantage of its space. Giants are made giant with lighting tricks (and a teeny tiny doll), piles of gold materialize from seemingly mundane materials, mystical creatures swim in the air and a throng of winged horses take flight thanks to some beautiful puppetry. Although our neophyte status in the opera realm kept us from recognizing any Wagner tune aside from "Ride of the Valkyries" (better known to some of you as "Kill Da Wabbit"), Kevin O'Donnell's adapted rock score is fun and driving. It is rare to see such a wide variety of media so seamlessly integrated into a show, and that alone is worth the price of your ticket.
We were truly dazzled by "Rhinegold" - everything flowed beautifully, there was humor and honest storytelling, and 70ish minutes flew by. We couldn't wait to see what would be in store for us for the next few hours. We admit it's slightly unfair to expect to be wowed for six hours straight (really less than five if you subtract intermissions), but the contrast between the first two acts was jarring. Although Montgomery and co-Director Joanie Schultz (Building Stage's Associate Artistic Director) have admirably cut Wagner's enormous libretto (translation: script of a musical or opera) to its bare essentials, it's just too big to avoid large chunks of exposition. At the risk of sounding childish, "Valkyrie" just has too many words. It's a regular story, lacking the same fantastical tone of "Rhinegold," and it unfortunately relies heavily on one actor to carry most of it. Things picked up for us - albeit slowly - in the third and fourth acts, and there are bits of sparkle in each piece, but we found our enthusiasm waning with increasing speed.
That's not to say that these acts are poorly done - on the contrary, there are some really strong performances from Wm. Bullion, Lucy Carapetyan, Darci Nalepa and Bill O'Connor, to name a few - but the hurculean task of sustaining a piece like this is, well, hurculean. We wonder if we'd agree with ourselves if we'd seen it with an almost-24 hour intermission, as it's presented next week.
The Ring Cycle, through March 14 extended through March 21. Tickets $32-$40. The Building Stage, 412 N Carpenter, 312-491-1369.