onStage Pittsburgh – Sit back, but don’t expect to relax. Quantum Theatre’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari assaults from all sides, in a dark and cautionary tale of man’s capacity for cruelty and manipulation.
Based on the 1920 silent masterpiece of the same name, written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer and directed by director Robert Wiene, this Cabinet has been given room to expand characterizations and events. The original film — along with Nosferatu, Metropolis and The Hands of Orlac — are still studied in film schools as prime examples of German Expressionism. Dark shadows and surreal staging enhance horrific themes of control of the masses.
The framework for Quantum’s Cabinet, by Jay Ball and directed by Jed Allen Harris, has 1970s Germany as a jumping off point. The Cold War was in full swing, a country divided East and West and, of course, Berlin had that actual wall. Catherine Gowl appears as Helene Weigel – an actress who in real life was the wife of Bertolt Brecht. Her fictional theater troupe is going to give it a go, telling the tale of the mysterious Dr. Caligari (an excellent Daniel Krell).
After two world wars, history, she says, tastes of “soot and ash,” but it’s vital to remember even the atrocities.
And what atrocities await!
Ball’s script spares no one. A happy-go-lucky trio (Nick Lehane as Franz, Sara Lindsey as Hannah and Cameron Nickel as Uli) have the misfortune to attend a town fair where one of the sideshows features the not-good doctor and his “somnambulist,” a chalk-faced nightmare named Cesare (Jerreme Rodriguez).
Unlike in the film, Cesare has more of a backstory here. He was a World War I soldier in the Austria-Hungary army and discovered, asleep, after apparently massacring a regiment of Russian soldiers. Now he appears to be more of a morbid party trick, stowed in a grim, large cabinet. He wakes up long enough to make dire predictions for some in the audience, and appears to do the doctor’s grim bidding.
Chaos and, surprisingly, some wackiness ensue. Ball and director Harris infuse this Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with laugh-out-loud funny bits that point to a skewed Eastern European vision of capitalism. (Cigarettes! Try ’em.) There’s also commentary on what makes for a healthy and happy German populace, which starts before the play begins, via Joseph Seaman‘ excellent projections, a backdrop to the angular, black-and-white stage.
Projections illustrate how post-WWI Germany embraced dance and exercise as a way to rebuild in body and spirit, after being crushed by the Entente Powers. Onstage, the youthful blithe spirits fly up and down angular platforms, crisscrossed with a stark white staircase, sometimes in joy, often in terror.
German Expressionism in early films spoke to a defeated country desperate to make sense of its bleak reality. Creating its own “reality” from inner turmoil was perhaps a coping mechanism. Cabinet was among the genre’s earliest examples, and often is recognized as the first modern horror movie (another, 1927’s Nosferatu, is being re-imagined this holiday season by The Lighthouse’s Robert Eggers. Merry Christmas).
There is a lot going on in this Quantum re-imagining at the Union Trust Building, which opened not long before the film debuted. The building’s gorgeous, soaring atrium gets a cameo.
Harris and Ball have built layers into this tale of murder and mayhem, with Krell’s mad scientist unleashing a tyrannical reign of terror on the youths unlucky enough to cross his path.
Jerreme Rodriguez, as Cesare, and Sara Lindsey, as Hannah, in “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” Photo by Jason Snyder
Lindsey follows up a wild ride in barebones productions’ Crocodile Fever as the beguiling Hannah. When Nickel’s seemingly carefree Uli disappears, the friends are thrown into a whirlpool of dark forces, with Lehane’s loyal young doctor left to unravel their fate.
The surrealistic tone, aided by the shadowy beauty of Yafei Hu’s multi-tiered scenic design, guarantees a growing sense of anxiety as the stories play out. Kudos to Mark August for keeping it all together over a wide range of characterizations, including a nudist and Bertolt Brecht.
In a note from the playwright, Ball mentions trying to find a space “between horror and hope.” We know the history of the Weimar Republic Germany. We have seen the horror. On the verge of the 2024 U.S. election, finding the hope is the challenge.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Quantum Theatre’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: An Out of the Box Experience premiers through November 24, 2024, at the Union Trust Building, Downtown (follow the “Q” signs). Tickets: Visit https://www.quantumtheatre.com/caligari/ .
