by Geoff Hoff~

During World War II the amount of captured German soldiers began to put a strain on the Allied resources in Europe and Prisoner of War camps were established, often at existing military bases, throughout the United States.  Jon Tuttle’s play Holy Ghost, now playing at Theatre of NOTE, takes place in one such camp in South Carolina where many of the guards were African American.  Bergen, an American Jewish man who has lost his faith, is put in charge of re-educating the Germans, however, because calling it that would cause problems, he is designated the Public Relations Officer.  He decides to put on a production of the play Abe Lincoln in Illinois using the German prisoners as actors.

One of the prisoners, Cetnik, who has been cast as Abe Lincoln, wanders out of the camp and Henry, one of the black guards, tries to find him and bring him back. Cetnik is a Czech man mistaken for a German. He is a “fish out of water” both among his fellow prisoners and the country he finds himself in and has the distinction of being able to be clueless in two languages.

The title of the play comes from what the Americans call the many suicides among the German POWs.  Unbeknownst to them, though, those “suicides” are actually those Germans who did not adequately toe the Nazi line and were forced to kill themselves by Reiker, the ranking German officer, who is working diligently to further the work of the Führer and realize the establishment of an Aryan world.

One of the many themes of this sprawling play is that Jews were also treated badly in the United States, that anyone who is different is treated badly everywhere, but that Blacks were treated as badly here as Jews were in Germany.  In the play it is with obvious irony that the two people who make the most logical arguments for the way people are treated are a German SS man and a bigoted Southern reverend.

There are three black guards, Waters, an older officer who has “almost become white”, Qaiser, a young, angry man who has joined the Nation of Islam, and Henry, a young private who Waters abuses mercilessly because he is, in Water’s mind, a personification of the reason whites hate blacks; arrogant, ignorant and ineffectual.  It is mostly Henry’s journey we are taken on.

As powerful as the themes of this play are, there is much that doesn’t make sense.  It is hard to believe that an escaped prisoner who doesn’t speak any English besides what he learned for the sake of his role as Lincoln would think that those lines would be an appropriate way to communicate.  It is humorous, yes, but doesn’t make sense.  Also, it doesn’t scan that he would keep his Lincoln outfit and especially his Lincoln beard on for so many days.  Well played by Rick Steadman, he is a charming, grinning fool but is written more as a caricature than a real human being.

There is also a scene in a box car with two actors on the lam, a black man and a Quaker, which, although wonderfully played, doesn’t much add anything to the play besides showing that blacks and whites can become friends and even Quakers can lose their faith.

And finally there is the oh, so symbolic Huck Finn scene where Henry and Cetnik are rowing down a river in  a stolen boat.  And interesting idea, but it doesn’t really work because, besides the fact that they are a black man and a white man rowing down the fabled river together, the dynamics between Henry and Cetnik are nothing like the dynamics between Huck Finn and Jim.  It seems put there to be clever rather than to serve the story.

The performances in this production are almost universally wonderful, although Dan Wingard as Bergen tends to indicate and mug a bit where true inner work might have served him better.  Special mention must be given to Brad C. Light, who plays both the German officer and the sardonic Sheriff Loker.

The cast includes Ryan Vincent Anderson as both Qaiser and Duke, the black actor.  Doug Burch plays both the CO of the camp and a Reverend.  Phillip C. Curry is marvelous as Waters, the ranking black officer.  Reena Dutt plays Gullah Woman, a wise old woman who sings and gives Henry life advice on his travels.  She has a wonderful voice but walks like a spry young woman trying valiantly to look like a crippled old woman.  Lorianne Hill plays two different men, one a German soldier who is a closet Jew and one a southern hick.  She is very good as both, but it pulled me out of the play a bit that they used a woman to play the male German soldier who Bergen casts as Lincoln’s sweetheart in his production.

Carl J. Johnson plays Papa, a vicious Southerner, King and Professor, the Quaker actor.  Richard PierreLouis is Henry, the young African American who wants desperately to join the fighting in Europe like his father before him.  Joel Scher plays a German solder and a Southern hick and a Federal agent and is quite good in all three roles.  Rebecca Sigl is well cast as the slightly wild rural girl who takes Cetnik in and is soundly punished for it.  Rick Steadman is Cetnik, who is charming.

Holy Ghost was directed by Michael Rothhaar.  The lighting design by Michael Roman was amazingly good.  Costumes by Megan MacLean were also very good.   The set by Dan Mailley, a khaki colored room adorned with a khaki colored American flag, was serviceable.

Holy Ghost is performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 7:00 pm through May 30, 2010.

Theatre of NOTE is located at 1517 N. Cahuenga in Hollywood, just north of Sunset Blvd.

Ticket prices: $22.00 general admission, $18.00 for students and seniors, $11.00 for active military and veterans.

Reservations online at www.TheatreOfNote.com or by phone at (323) 856-8611.