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| Marilyn Chris, Michael Hardstark. |
KADDISH [Drama/Family/Jews/Mental
Illness/Religion] A: Allen Ginsburg; SC: Ginsberg’s poem, “Kaddish”; D: Robert
Kalfin; S/C: John Scheffler; L: Bennett Averyt; P: Chelsea Theatre Center of
Brooklyn; T: Chelsea Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music (OB); 2/1/72-2/20/72
(21); Circle in the Square (OB); 3/7/72-5/14/72 (80): total: 100
Robert Kalfin’s staging of famed Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish represented what was then an unusual
experiment in the mixing of technological media with live stage action, something we now take for granted in both avant-garde and commercial productions. Three
large (for their time) TV screens upstage pictured action occurring in the past, images of the
live action being performed at the moment, or a combination of these. The
technical assistance and equipment (provided by Video Free America) required to
run the show cost over $3,000 a week and thereby limited the length of the run.
Not all the critics were pleased with the effects. Some,
like Clive Barnes, thought the work “very successful”; others, like Henry Hewes
and Harold Clurman, found it interesting, but incompletely realized; yet
others, like John Simon, thought it “very poorly executed.”
Ginsberg’s play, based on his own poem, whose title refers to
the Hebrew prayer for the dead, is a memory piece evoking the poet’s boyhood in
the 30s and 40s as the son (Michael Hardstark) of Naomi (Marilyn Chris), a gifted woman who
suffered the gradual loss of her sanity. Following a lobotomy, she ended
her days in a state institution. Told episodically, with frequent flashbacks,
the work was considered by some a brilliant, powerful contribution; others
dismissed it as a meager non-play.
Michael Smith wrote of it as “a genuinely moving theatre
piece” in which the poet explored with heartfelt sympathy his late mother’s
anguish and the nature of his own and his father’s response to her pain. Hewes
termed it “one of the notable achievements of the season, . . . . both a moving
human document and an adventurous exploration of how drama can be reinforced by
the use of multiple projected images.” Clurman questioned features of the
writing and staging, but concluded that “The material which composes Kaddish is terrifyingly real; it cannot
be dismissed.” But Julius Novick swiped at “the flatness, the narrowness, the
beside-the-point-ness” of the production. And Simon lashed out at “Ginsberg’s
detestable pseudo-dramatization of his pseudo-poem.” He described it as “undramatic
. . . , painful, repulsive, self-indulgent and, at last, excruciatingly boring.”
Marilyn Chris gave a performance of awesome dimension as
Naomi, leading Hewes to say that her work was “more moving and more
unforgettable than any of the fine performances receiving Tony nominations.”
She won an OBIE for Distinguished Performance, a Drama Desk Award for
Outstanding Performance, and had the highest number in the Female Lead category
of Variety’s Off Broadway poll. Video
Free American took home an OBIE for Best Visual Effects and a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Scenic Designer.
Chip Zien, later an important New York actor, was an understudy.