June 2010 Theatre Review by Lawrence Bommer
War With the Newts
Karl Capek may have written this satirical novel in 1936 but Jason Loewith’s totally committed adaptation makes the Czech seer’s depiction of nature’s revenge painfully pertinent. When the earth is insulted by one species through global warming or, here, the corruption of helpful humanoid salamanders, it strikes back with another. This engrossing adaptation, by Loewith and Justin Palmer, chronicles the domestication of a group of South Sea newts, amphibians who were happy enough just to briefly slither out of the Pacific to dance in a semicircle in the moonlight, into pearl fishers working for a conglomerate. In time they become coastline engineers, dredging, excavating, building bridges, and erecting dams like oceanic beavers.
Inevitably, the newts find themselves discriminated against in exact proportion to their adaptation of human-like behavior—until they turn on us and enslave their former masters, demanding that half of Europe be inundated for the perpetuation of this “master race.” Keeping this interspecies warfare all too human, Capek presents it through the wide eyes of Frantisek Povondra, a humble human who becomes a disillusioned historian of the takeover for which he takes false responsibility. He’s as heroic as Capek’s doomed humans ever get.
So are these newts analogous to the robots that Capek invented a decade before in “R.U.R.”? Or are they analogous a Tarantino-like revenge of the Jews whose sufferings under the Nazis are echoed by the salamanders’ sorrows? It matters less than it seems because, as depicted here more through the reactions by the endangered humans than by Michael Montenegro’s menacing puppets, the newts deliver a powerful portrait of the wages of hubris. They provide a proper punishment for the enslavement and exploitation we’ve perpetrated on a seemingly harmless world. The newts stepped up and did the job and there’s something almost admirable about the elegance of their victory, even if or perhaps because for once we’re the victims.
Next Theatre presents the World Premiere of "War With the Newts" through June 20, 2010 at at the Kathleen Mullady Theatre, Loyola University, 1125 West Loyola Avenue. Running time is 2 hours with intermission. Tickets are $20 to $40. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Friday & Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm, special Wednesday matinee on June 9 & 16 at 1 pm. Call 847-475-1875 or visit www.nexttheatre.org.
About Lawrence Bommer
A
native Chicagoan, Lawrence Bommer has been an active free-lance
writer and playwright since 1975. For twenty years he wrote a
weekly column, "Opening Nights" for the Friday section of
the Chicago Tribune, where he also regularly contributed theater
criticism and feature writing. His work has appeared in
Stagebill, the Pulitzer-Lerner newspapers and The Advocate.
Mr. Bommer was theater editor for the Windy City Times since its founding until 1999; from 1986 a theater critic for the Chicago Reader (where he has also written for the "Calendar" and "Our Town" sections); Chicago Free Press, where he was contributing editor until the paper’s demise in spring 2010; Chicago Footlights, where he has been a regular contributor; and Plays International, where he is the Chicago correspondent. He has also contributed to the Hollywood Reporter, PerformInk, Screen Magazine, CitySearch, the Chicago Illini, Inside Chicago, Illinois Entertainer, the International Theatre Festival of Chicago newsletter, Plays International, CitySearch, Playbill Online, TheatreMania, CurtainUp.com and Chicago Enterprise. Mr. Bommer is a three-time finalist for a Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in the "arts criticism" category. In 1991 he became a regular theater and, dance critic and arts writer for the Chicago Tribune. His commentary has also aired on LesBiGay Radio, WGN and on Milwaukee Public Radio.
As a playwright, Mr. Bommer's work has been produced in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Madison and, in Chicago, by the Organic Theater Company (Jonathan Wild [1979], Poe [1980]. Gulliver's Last Travels [1993] and by Lionheart Gay Theatre (Gunsel, The Tyrannicides, Killers and Comrades). Since 1976 Mr. Bommer has taught at the Francis W. Parker School and was a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1969 to 1975 (where he received his Master's degree in English), as well as a guest lecturer at the College of DuPage, Roosevelt University, DePaul University and the University of Chicago. Mr. Bommer is a member of the American Theater Critics Association and has been a member of the National Writers Union and the Dramatists Guild.