Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen (better known as La Ronde) was too sexual to be produced when written in uptight, 1897 Vienna, and was not staged until 1920. It’s a comedy in 10 scenes, each with two characters and each ending in consummation. One character per scene carries over to the next, but with a new partner. The final scene reintroduces the spare character from the first, thus completing the sexual circle. Additionally, each character is passive in one scene and aggressive in the next.
Schnitzler’s realistic and psychologically true work (he and Freud were friends) has inspired numerous stage, screen and even operatic adaptations, including at least one all-male version (the original is hetero). The Blue Room is a 1998 updating by British social realist playwright David Hare. S London sell-out with Nicole Kidman in the cast (and briefly nude), it’s the debut production for Katharsis Theatre Company
Given the political and theatrical power of much of Hare’s work, The Blue Room is surprisingly unmodern and soft. His superficial changes…soldier to taxi driver, a count to a non-specifically wealthy young man, a few four-letter words added…hardly alter the late 19th Century tone and attitude in which, for example, a spoiled boy pursues a household servant, and easy women either are servants, hookers, actresses, poor or married but bored. Hare doesn’t tamper with Schnitzler’s understanding of role playing and power exchange that underlay so much of sex, nor with Schnitzler’s premise that women far too often are sexual victims, but neither does he add anything. His one major contribution…a funny device…is to project the time of the lovemaking, ranging from 45 seconds to over two hours.
The work is satire, but the Katharsis cast doesn’t know how to take full advantage of it, as directed by Kyle Hillman. The few scenes overtly played as comedy …such as those featuring a self-absorbed playwright…are exaggerations, while other scenes are performed with such solemnity that the audience doesn’t know it’s OK to laugh, which comedy must establish early on. Katharsis cautions about the play’s sexual content, but there’s nothing explicit and little eroticism (far more powerful). In the Katharsis world, men wear baggy boxer shorts and keep their wristwatches on during sex, and the women never undress at all.
The cast of five men and five women mixes new faces and established Off-Loopers, and delivers mixed performances. Steve Ratcliff stands out as a politician who is sincere both with his wife (Heather Witt, also good both in comedy and sadness) and the girl he keeps. The Blue Room isn’t a bore, but like far too many sexual pick-ups, it promises more than it delivers.