Playwright: Sean Miller
At: The Journeymen at City Lit Theatre
Phone: ( 773 ) 857-5795; $20
Runs through: Dec. 18
By Jonathan Abarbanel
The history of The Journeymen has been one of far more hits than misses but with the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Scott & Ernest the troupe stubs its collective toe badly. This self-proclaimed comedy is neither amusing nor revealing of character, and needs dramaturgical guidance.
In a nutshell: F. Scott Fitzgerald is drunk and idle in Paris. The great editor Max Perkins ( who guided both Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway ) sends Hemingway to Paris to intervene. Hemingway recruits Fitzgerald for a Mexican adventure in pursuit of a native relic, 'the Golden Schlong.' They land in a backwater Mexican jail, where Gertrude Stein shows up--from Paris--to lecture them about 'the evils of male exuberance.' She leaves them stewing in jail. End of play.
It's only 75 minutes but it's too long, in substantial part because there's no character development. Fitzgerald is just a drunk, with no trace of literary genius or of personal demons. Hemingway is just a blusterer, although a cagey one, trying to motivate Fitzgerald to behave like a man, which appears to mean which one can use more four-letter words. A superficial current of repressed homosexual attraction--they jokingly drink to 'platonic homosexuality'--isn't developed either seriously or comically. Gertrude Stein's improbable appearance comes from Left Field. Secondary characters--Zelda Fitzgerald among them--are one dimensional and have little to do. Author Sean Miller never supplies a reason why he's writing about Fitzgerald and Hemingway, or why we should give a damn, except for their fame as literary icons. Even in a comedy, that's not enough. As Stein might say, 'There's no there there.'
The play and presentation are riddled with dramaturgical errors. The program says it takes place in 1939 in New York ( briefly ) , Paris ( a bit longer ) and Mexico ( chiefly ) and director Frank Pullen has suffused the production in late-1930's swing music to emphasize the time period. But the play's internal evidence makes 1929 the year. Hemingway asks Perkins about the effects of the Stock Market Crash ( October, 1929 ) that ushered in the Great Depression. Also, Perkins is in the process of publishing Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which came out in 1929. Is this confusion Pullen's or the playwright's?
However, errors of syntax clearly are the author's. In reference to Mexico he uses the phrase 'Third World,' a descriptive of developing nations that wasn't coined until the 1950's. Also, one character uses the word 'do-able,' an invented word of the last 20 years. Whether taking place in 1929 or 1939, the words are inappropriate.
The Journeymen generally attracts capable actors. Robert Quinlan ( Hemingway ) , Matt Roberson ( Fitzgerald ) and Eirian DiSanto ( Zelda ) show signs of life. Perhaps future outings in better plays will prove the point.
