Political Theatre in the '80s
In: Worldview, Band 24, Heft 4, S. 13-15
Outside a tiny loft on downtown Church Street, a group of people are clustered, hoping for late ticket cancellations for the current production at The Theatre Exchange, a new OffOff Broadway group whose space seats about fifty. The settings and, indeed, the very platform upon which the audience sits are ingeniously fashioned from scrap lumber found along Canal Street. The cast is young, but Alex Demetriev has directed them with such intensity that they successfully capture the spirit and savagery of post W.W.I Germany.On Broadway, Christopher Reeve, formerly of Superman fame, now plays a legless, homosexual Vietnam veteran in a comedy-drama that is part of a series of plays about the Talley family, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lanford Wilson. The production is supported by extensive publicity and a full ad campaign in the media.
