‘Finks’ means well but can’t find right tone
“This is not a witch hunt,” intones Rep. Francis E. Walter in the opening of Joe Gilford’s “Finks,” a play defined by the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Walter, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, chaired that committee in the mid-1950s, leading investigations of citizens suspected of having “Communist ties.” The sincere but uneven West Coast premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley segues from comedy to drama and is not entirely successful as either, though its dramatization of the corrosive events carries weight.
The play is leavened with Gilford’s intimacy with its subject. His parents, actors Jack and Madeline Gilford, were called before the committee, refused to testify and had their careers temporarily crater from being blacklisted as a result. The Gilfords represent the many lives and careers affected of those who did not cooperate with the HUAC. Even those who did cooperate, the “finks,” suffered often being ostracized socially and professionally.
After a period of enforced inactivity, Jack Gilford returned to work with notable stage, screen and television credits, including Tonynominated roles in the original Broadway productions of “Cabaret” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” In “Forum” both on stage and in the film, Gilford appeared with his close friend Zero Mostel, who had also been blacklisted. Gilford appeared in popular commercials for Cracker Jack and Lay’s potato chips, and was nominated for a 1974 Academy Award for best supporting actor in the film “Save the Tiger.” Madeline Gilford became a Broadway producer and casting director. Here the Gilfords are called Mickey Dobbs (Jim Stanek) and Natalie Meltzer (Donna Vivino), though many real-life characters do appear.
The play alternates and sometimes overlaps scenes of their courtship and eventual marriage with testimony before Walter. Actor Lee J. Cobb and writer Budd Schulberg take turns on the stand along with director Elia Kazan, who is shown enthusiastically and unapologetically naming names. All subsequently worked together on the film “On the Waterfront,” often seen as Kazan’s response to the criticism he received for his testimony.
Mickey works at Cafe Society when we meet him. He considers himself a nightclub comedian — “I’m a guy who introduces Sinatra,” he says. He does impressions, and sometimes his jokes are political but in a toothless way: “Red Buttons is so scared he’s changed his name to Blue,” he says of the then-popular actor and comedian.
Natalie is an unapologetic political activist who sets her sights on Mickey and resolutely gets her man. The play focuses after the two come together and her interests increasingly conflict with his ascending career. But that doesn’t happen until late in the first act, and much of what precedes it feels like incidental filler.
Vivino’s Natalie, the only woman in the show, has revolutionary zeal, and she bulldozes both Mickey and the audience with her assurance. Unsurprisingly, Stanek’s genial apolitical Mickey eventually becomes absorbed into the investigation’s sweeping undertow.
There are solid supporting performances from Gabriel Marin as an actor friend of Mickey’s, Richard Frederick in several roles, and Robert Sicular as the officious Walter.
Giovanna Sardelli staged the play’s 2013 New York premiere and directs its West Coast premiere here. The mashup of tones often feels at odds with each other as the simplistic interrogations flatten out against the more nuanced domestic conflict.