by Kevin T McEneaney
This past weekend, the Theater and Performance Program at Bard College conducted a Mainstage production of Puntila and Matti, His Hired Man (1948) by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Rebecca Wright at the LUMA Theater. This excellent and robust student production, set in Finland, evokes striking, trenchant parallels to our contemporary situation in the United States, where power has been translated from a dysfunctional democracy to totalitarian improvisation. The script was based on stories by playwright Hella Wuolijoki, translated by Ralph Mannheim.
The play offers a critical examination of flip-flopping behavior from momentary generosity under the influence of alcohol to stern and cruel penny-pinching under daily sobriety. The character Puntila, played by Dani Koté, persuasively exudes nasty megalomania tempered by brief delusions of hypocritical generosity that deliver a powder keg of future retributions that strike like sudden lightning.
Matti, the chauffeur played by Lo Oliveri, provides caution and sanity, which endures for a little while until he becomes trapped in a situation whereby Puntila demands that he marry his desperate, fickle daughter Eva, ably played by Caden Davilia-Sanabria, after her engagement to a pompously affected city diplomat, played with narcissistic aplomb by Fyodor Michael, falls through.
One drunken night, Puntila proposes marriage to four different impoverished young girls: a waitress convincing played by Dalba Tineo; a telephone operator with a lovely singing voice, played by Ren Price; a sickly dairymaid, played with chronic cough by Jonah Wood; and a pharmacist’s daughter played with wounded dignity by Jane Sheehan, After making the difficult journey to Puntila’s remote rural estate, the girls are abusively mocked and ridiculed by Puntila.
The four working-class girls who had accepted Puntila’s proposal provide a social commentary chorus with remarkably tuneful and energetic voices in this raucous mayhem of a nightmare.
Set Design by Dahalia Al-Habieli provided spare, transformational minimalist flexibility, while Costume Design by Sydney Maresca supplied colorful, rustic simplicity. Emily Bate composed illuminating music in her sound design. Dramaturg Bee Kanofsky was an invisible angel.
Many other actors effectively played multiple small roles, and the large invisible staff involved in this marvelous production delivered spectacular dynamics that offered amusing irony, which echoes the plight of the average American citizen whenever they turn on contemporary television news.
