Playwright: Karel Svenk (reconstruction/revisions by Jana Sedova, Darek Vostrel & Naomi Patz). At: Genesis Productions, National Pastime Theater, 941 W. Lawrence Ave. (4th floor) Tickets: 1-773-800-1703; www.genesistheatricals.com; $30. Runs through: Sept. 1
Several plays about the rise of Nazism have been written by authors who witnessed it first-hand, most notable among them Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, which turns Hitler into a Chicago thug among the meat packers of the old Union Stockyards. The Last Cyclist, by Czech Jew Karel Svenk, is another.
Unlike Brecht writing in safe exile from Nazism, Svenk wrote as a Jew living in the concentration community of Terezin (near Prague) while awaiting transport to a death camp. His 1944 work, apparently more a loose cabaret than a polished drama, was rehearsed but never officially opened: Terezin's Jewish capos feared Nazi reaction to its all-too-obvious allegory. Then Svenk and his actors were sent to their deaths. He was 28.
In 1961 the sole survivor of the original production reconstructed the play from memory, fleshing out what she had forgotten with new material. This present 2009 version represents a further reconstruction and theatrical amendment of the 1961 piece. The play's history is nearly as fascinating as the play itself.
As Svenk wrote it, The Last Cyclist is an absurdist comedy which grows less comedic and absurd over its 80 minute running time. Undesirables (Jews and others) are portrayed as bicycle riders who are persecuted and transported to "Horror Island" by Mr. Rat and his actually-insane followers. An underling at a hospital, Rat murders the presiding doctor and wins over the inmates with booze and bicycles ... until they decide to suppress cyclists. The hero is a grocer, Abeles, who becomes the most-wanted cyclist even though he doesn't ride a bike. However, he buys one for his fiancé, Manicka. "He had a grandfather who rode a bicycle" is the taint which condemns him, a direct reference to the blood relationship laws Nazis used to define a Jew. Mid-play, Abeles prays, "My Lord, do You exist? Because if You don't, I am lost," echoing the founding tenant of Judeo-Christianity.
Director Elizabeth Margolius offers an energetic promenade staging in which the audience is free to move around a free-form circular playing area, defined by a few chairs and old trunks doubling as audience seats and platforms for the performers. The nine engaging actors play several characters, chief among them Abeles/Svenk (Steve Greist), Manicka (Amy Gray) and Rat (Mike Hall in dark-haired contrast to the blond Greist). All nine convey just the right degree of exaggeration for the partially-grotesque characters and absurd situations, which nonetheless reflect the twisted logic of all repressive regimes.
As reconstructed, the work adds "bookends" which usefully supply the play's history but also explain its sociopolitical context. The explanation is heavy-handed and unnecessary: Audiences know about Nazism and the play stands on its own merits.