Abstract

Theatre

The author likes what the U.S.-based Open Theatre Ensemble is doing. It enacts variations on basic themes, such as the genesis of evil, in a series of interrelated vignettes, with or without words. The author liked the play "The Serpent." That may be because there is something charmingly naive for people in the story of Eve's emergence from Adam's rib, the subsequent temptation of Eve by the serpent and Eve's seduction of Adam. Then graphically and impressively people see Cain's killing of Abel. Following this, there is a mass copulation to the accompaniment of Biblical begats intoned by two ladies. There are no costumes at the Open Theatre, the actors appear barefoot, in simple work clothes designed for the occasion. Sometimes they speak words written by Susan Yankowitz for the play "Terminal" and by Jean Van Itallie for "The Serpent," but it is all a collective work under the direction of Joseph Chaikin and Robert Sklar.