Playwright: Donald Gecewicz
At: Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark Street Tickets: $15-$20
Phone: 773-871-1212
Runs through: June 3
by Jonathan Abarbanel
It's the old college try at Live Bait, where an interesting subject is given a not-very-interesting treatment in this world premiere by Donald Gecewicz, into whose lap responsibility falls. The history-inspired Night Battles is set in extreme northeast Italy in the late 1500's, where rural Cividale was within the mighty Venetian Republic, although far from the mainstream. The peasantry of Cividale, and the surrounding Friuli, believed in the existence of God-chosen good witches known as "benandanti." The play concerns the repression of the benandanti by the Roman ( not Spanish ) Inquisition.
The conflicts are between church and state, and between competing ecstatic religious experiences. For benandanti such as Paolo Gasparuto, the play's hero, the ecstatic experience is that of the soul leaving the body to fight evil forces. For inquisitor Fra Felice, ecstasy is the physical and emotional rapture of the love of Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, Night Battle does not astutely focus these conflicts.
First, there is an intermission the play shouldn't have, because the author doesn't identify the hero before the act break. Fra Felice clearly is the antagonist, but Paolo is given no more weight than any other peasant. Next, a Venetian secular official is present throughout the play, but has no effect on the outcome. The church and state conflict works only if something is at stake for both sides. Finally, the ecstatic experiences need interconnection. The nature of Fra Felice's ecstasies, or his understanding of them, must be affected by his encounter with the benandanti ecstasies. This is what the play needs to rise above the level of a stock two-dimensional interrogation drama.
Notwithstanding, director Susan Leigh and her team have done much to make Night Battles notable. Mary Griswold's simple set of crossed platforms ( both crucifix and crossroads ) provides playing space and a statement, nicely amplified by the lighting and projections of Steven Conway. Michele Gillman's pseudo-Renaissance original songs are effective in words and music ( although the opening song is too long ) . The costumes of Alicia L. Turner are striking, especially in the carnival sequence of masked figures in shaggy capes.
Sharon Gopfert as Paolo and Scott Rowe as Fra Felice are the strongest performers, and need to be, making up with sincerity what they lack in depth. The company of seven will win no acting awards; but author Gecewicz provides little character development for any of them. The players are at their best in choreographed sequences, especially the acrobatic physical work used to dramatize Paolo's out-of-body experience, strongly anchored by Joe Gerrits.