Travesties

Written by Tom Stoppard

Directed by Will Provost

Produced by Brenda Herschbach

At North House

Through March 15

EACH SEMESTER, Harvard students put on an enormous amount of theater. This consistently stretches the dramatic resources of the university to the limit, and the resulting productions are often a little thin. But as long as people keep coming, Harvard students will continue to put on more plays.

Travesties is fairly solid as house productions go. The story is based upon the imaginary life experiences of a senile diplomat, specifically focusing on the year 1917 when Lenin the revolutionary, Tzara the artist of anti-art, and Joyce the self-exiled Irish writer all roved the streets of tranquil Zurich while Europe pounded out its own life blood. The humorous "what ifs" of their possible meetings or interactions are fully exploited by the witty, yet, erudite Stoppard script.

Much of the acting is top notch as well. Andrew Watson as the might-have-been-British Consul demonstrates fine sense of control. Watson moves from aged recollector to callow youth with a startling ease. His control of voice and movement, save a few some minor quavers, is excellent. He carries the opening monologue with such success that the audience wonders if he could have carried off a one-man rendition of Travesties.

And as Watson's natural dramatic and stylistic corollary, Linus Gelber plays the eccentric Tristan Tzara with delightful expression and intensity. In some scenes, Gelber is the quiet and effete conversationalist. Then, he suddenly will burst out into a rage of "Dada, Dada," toppling chairs over as he goes. Gelber serves as a necessary energetic interlude in a play that often becomes too quiescent.

Finally, director Provost has done a generally fine job of putting things together. Narrations of events, particularly by the supporting female characters, are all wonderfully delivered in the distinctive style of PBS documentaries. Tempo is well controlled in a play whose tempo comprises half of its humor, from the saltry, seductive delivery of Marxist-Leninist philosophy to the back and forth of limmerick-style banter. Nothing is really seriously screwed up.

THIS PLAY DOES get very thin. Stoppard's script is a lot like a Historical Studies A course: very didactic and superficial at the same time. And the play seems longer than the two-and-a-half hours of its duration. For persons who don't know much about any one of the three revolutionaries, some sections of Travesties might seem very long indeed, with the humor flying overhead like distant Swiss geese.

The actors playing Joyce and Lenin are completely wrong for their roles. What their actual talent level is I don't know, but it isn't high enough to make their characters believable. Perhaps the intent was comic incongruity between historic image and actual person, but it doesn't work.

Provost, like many Harvard directors, misses at least one basic of direction. Although movement is well choreographed in some scenes, in others actors wander about with stutter steps as they tentatively proceed to purposeless end points.

So Travesties is not a travesty of drama, but its not high comedy either. Bring your notebook on WWI culture and a good portion of patience, and you'll get a good helping of learned wit in return. But if you want easy-to-appreciate comedy, or at least something with a faster pace, you'd better check elsewhere this weekend.