TEMPTING: Heather Schroeder as Eve and Jason Maxwell as Adam in Arthur Miller's Creation of the World and Other Business at the Denver Victorian Playhouse. Photo Credit: Wade Wood
Arthur Miller's
Creation of the World and Other Business is billed as a "parable inspired by the Book of Genesis in the Bible."
That's a good thing for audiences, in the same way that TV movies "based on a true story" or "inspired by actual events" are much more emotionally and intellectually satisfying than an objective news report or case file, even if the facts have been skewed, simplified or embellished for dramatic effect. For those of us who actually have the hubris to think we already know and understand the story of The Fall, this is an opportunity to question our assumptions and broaden our horizons.
This is a very good thing indeed. And The Denver Vic's production, directed by Rick Bernstein, is a very good production.
Sure, go ahead and read the original. You'll find it in the first four chapters of Genesis. It's just a handful of pages. In fact, go ahead and read it right now by clicking this link:
http://www.biblegateway.com/
Now, check out the play to see what the brilliant Jewish American playwright Arthur Miller did with this familiar story. The "other business" referred to in the title is primarily about the angel Lucifer's ruthless and relentless attempts to win God's approval, and barring that, force his way into an equal partnership as co-God, and if that fails, destroy everything God has tried to accomplish in the world.
Christian Mast forcefully plays Lucifer as a cross between Richard III and a mustache-twirling melodrama villain. But he argues persuasively, and manipulates both God and man with ease. Chris Kendall portrays God as a benign and somewhat milquetoast guy in a straw fedora, cardigan sweater and corduroy pants, who is befuddled by his own creation, and is surprised and vaguely disappointed by humanity. He does lose his temper with Lucifer, but can't undo the damage his protege has done, and doesn't have a plan for eventually reconciling Himself (who lacks an only begotten Son) and man.
Creation is achieved primarily through the actions of the angels (Missy Moore, Jonny Schroeder and Melissa D. Zarb) who dance around and gesture meaningfully in their streaked and spattered Union suits, then spend the rest of the time observing the action like a mute Greek chorus. One angel decides Lucifer is much more interesting than God (she's right), and becomes groupie to his degenerate rock star in the second act.
Jason Maxwell is delightfully goofy as Adam before the fall, gleefully naming the animals, thoroughly enjoying talks with the Lord, and managing to be blissfully oblivious to the voluptuous appeal of Eve. But in exile, Adam becomes (much like his Creator) tragically detached and mundane, an ineffective father, yet honest enough to regret and confess his moral failure and unrealized potential.
Heather Schroeder's Eve is all doe-eyed innocence at first, then tolerant of her mate who doesn't treat her as any more special than the rest of creation. Stunningly, Eve is driven to partake of the forbidden fruit because of penis envy. She doesn't get one, but is given the panic and pain of childbirth instead. In one remarkable scene, Eve truly rebels and flirts with the "bad boy" Lucifer, which displeases God no end. In the second act she becomes the model of so many other Jewish mothers from Genesis who favor one son over another, creating all manner of friction, rivalry and drama.
Cain and Abel (Paul Jaquith and Max Stewart) make their appearance in the second act, during which Cain tries to force God to let them return to Eden by offering a perfect sacrifice. Things don't turn out the way he'd expected because of something so trivial as God simply preferring steak to vegetables and grains. So instead, and despite Lucifer's valiant attempts to prevent it, Cain offers his brother as a sacrificial lamb instead.
Too late. God abdicates his throne, washes his hands of the whole Creation and walks off to leave us on our own, with the haunting reminder that we are made from dust, but not just dust. We are made from dust and love. And in that love there is at least a glimmer of hope for man to survive on his own without God.
Okay, so there are all kinds of theological problems with this play. It's not meant to be a sermon. It's a play inspired by religious themes and stories from the Bible. Miller shouldn't be expected to have written this from a Christian perspective. God doesn't need me to defend the Bible from Miller's inaccuracies and misinterpretations which more accurately should be recognized as the tremendously effective use of dramatic license anyway.
What makes
Creation so compelling is that Miller managed to be so painfully authentic to his own experience of God in this fallen, broken world, and find resonance with that in God's Word. I glimpsed a hint of Miller's brief, failed marriage to Marilyn Monroe in his depiction of the geeky Adam and beautiful but damaged and insecure Eve. And I have to give him credit for straining and struggling to see in humanity a hope that love could triumph even in a godless world.
Rick Bernstein's direction, as always, is astute, sensitive and imaginative. He knows and respects the material, and he takes his cast to some sensitive, vulnerable and emotionally costly places. The investment pays off. Half the cast spends most of the play in stained, form-fitting long underwear, and makes it work.
The Creation of the World and Other Business isn't the kind of Bible play you'll see in churches, but church-going people should get out of their own hallowed comfort zones and see it anyway. Actually, the distinction between theatres and churches is eroding from both directions, and that's a good thing, too.
The Creation of the World... plays Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. at the Denver Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker St. Denver, through April 24. (The Sunday, March 14 performance is at 2 p.m.) Tickets are $22. Call 303-433-4343 or visit online at
www.denvervic.com.
