Word: rauch
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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AFTER WATCHING the first scene of the Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theatre's production of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, the audience realizes that the material is not appropriate for young children of people easily embarrassed by explicit dramatizations of sex. However for others, director Bill Rauch's creative adaptation of this collage of 10 one-act dialogues is a superbly orchestrated version of the delicate material...
This complicated process works smoothly in Rauch's production as the five stages never interfere with the dialogue. Throughout each scene, the audience hears excerpts of the others which makes them feel that they are part of a process...
...letter series of relationships with each character dealing with two different lovers. And although each dialogue only lasts 11 1/2 minutes, each actor manages to create a believable character with his own foibles, facial expressions, and sexual mannerisms. During each interval, the couples reach some sort of crescendo, which Rauch treats delicately without overdosing the audience with passionate, explicit...
...theater as a stage proves doubly successful in underlining another theme of the play: The difficulty or absence of communication between men and women. Not only does the size of the theater dwarf and separate the characters (Rauch, however, uses the space very evenly), but the rows of seats provide frustrating barriers between them. Characters, unable to make themselves heard or understood, race down aisles, violently pushing up the seats in their frustration. Not only does this express what words cannot, but it builds a frenzy of tension and frustration. In one particularly evocative scene. Nina and Constantine--reunited after...
Ironically, Chekhov's genius lies in his ability to communicate the inability to communicate. Rauch's production not only captures this haunting theme, but--by putting the audience on stage, and the stage in the audience--suggests that the loneliness and isolation of Chekhov's characters is all too real...