Waiting for Lefty

Waiting for Lefty," Clifford Odets' one-act of the Depression, still rings with vitality and truth. Director Joanne Woodward has fueled a superb ensemble with the fury of a gathering storm. The play is set in a union hall, played out on a barren wooden platform and performed in the round. As the actors merge with

Waiting for Lefty," Clifford Odets' one-act of the Depression, still rings with vitality and truth. Director Joanne Woodward has fueled a superb ensemble with the fury of a gathering storm. The play is set in a union hall, played out on a barren wooden platform and performed in the round. As the actors merge with the surrounding audience, there is a chilling feeling of realism and urgency (period songs played just before the start of the action evoke the time and place).

Flashback scenes reveal various elements of poverty, injustice and political reality in the homes of workers, a hospital and a producer’s office. Odets never wasted a word. The language in each vignette rolls with thunder, and Woodward has found the proper balance between unrest and rage.

A young taxi driver and his g.f. dream of a life and family together but are discouraged by the economic crisis of the time. In this production, Sid and Florrie are a black couple (acted with conviction by Wood Harris and Lisa Renee Pitts), bringing poignancy to such moments as when Sid whispers a fragment of Andy Razaf’s searching lyric of racial shame, “What did I do to be so black and blue?”

The actors unite with conviction: Jerry Mayer as the burly and bullying union boss, Greg Naughton as the idealistic chemist who would rather sacrifice his job than assist in the manufacture of poison gas, Peter Jacobson as a young actor who auditions for a role with manic desperation.

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Marisa Tomei adds an angry and poignant account of a distraught housewife, urging her gutless husband to rout the thugs from the union, and Robert Hogan, as an aggressive agitator who stirs the drivers to a near-brawl, leads the brief narrative to its tragic finale.

All the tech assists, from a bold lighting design to plain ’30s costumes, accent the mood of a country in distress and the pungent voice of a young playwright.

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Waiting for Lefty

NEW YORK

  • Production: A Blue Light Theater Company presentation of a play in one act by Clifford Odets. Directed by Joanne Woodward. Set, Michael Schweikardt
  • Crew: Costumes, Laurie Churba; lighting, Deborah Constantine; sound, Raymond D. Schilke; music, Deborah R. Lapidus; stage manager, Christina Massie. Blue Light manager, Greg Naughton. Opened April 27, 1997, at the Classic Stage Co. Reviewed April 26; 171 seats; $30 top. Running time: 1 HOUR, 10 MIN.
  • Cast: Cast: Jerry Mayer (Fatt), PJ Brown (Joe), Marisa Tomei (Edna/Secretary), Greg Naughton (Miller), Lee Wilkof (Fayette/Dr. Barnes), Scott Whitehurst (Irv/Henchman), Lisa Renee Pitts (Florrie), Wood Harris (Sid), Bernie Sheredy (Clayton/Grady), Alex Draper (Actor), Peter Jacobson (Dr. Benjamin), Robert Hogan (Agate); Allen K. Bernstein, Kurt Elftmann, Gregory Vaughn Ward, Christopher Peterson (Union Members)

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