Regional stage productions offer different looks at the 1980s

There are a couple of new openings in the area that offer different looks at the 1980s. In “Steel Magnolias” at Curtain Call Theatre in Latham, a group of female friends meet regularly at a local beauty salon to discuss the problems of life in a small southern town. Meanwhile at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass, “Kunster” examines the career of firebrand lawyer who defended every radical of the 1970s and 80s. They make interesting contrasts.

“Kunstler,” Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, Mass.

During the 1960s and 70s, whenever there was a trial involving political controversy you could be sure the defense attorney for the headline-making cases was William Kunstler. Today, unless you are of a certain age, Kunstler’s contributions to the cause of social justice are almost forgotten.

The play “Kunstler,” at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass. through June 10, is attempt to rectify that neglect. Written by Jeffrey Sweet, the work honors the man who helped shape legal history. He was a founder of what he called “Movement Law” which theorizes that traditional legal procedures can be used to inhibit justice. Therefore, he reasoned, the practice of law must sometimes be disruptive in order to serve higher goals.

One of the play’s great strengths is that though it has the elements of both a history lesson and a biography, it is neither. Essentially “Kunstler” attempts to tell how an individual is called to his life’s work and that calling can radicalize him and places him outside of the mainstream of society.

Kunstler’s growth as a man and a lawyer is presented in four movements – discovery, disillusionment, hope and reflection.

The stories he tells about the Chicago Seven trial, the Attica Prison riots and the Wounded Knee trial, along with a reflective post-lecture conversation with a female African-American student, show how he evolved into a man who was obsessed with the right of every individual to have fair access to the law.

“Kunstler” is more than a play about how one man stood up for the outsider in tumultuous times. It is a play that makes it clear how necessary it is for freedom to have a justice system that serves every person within a society.

“Kunstler” at Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, Mass. Performances Tuesdays-Sundays until June 10. Tickets and schedule information 413-236-8888 or barringtonstagecompany.org For a more extensive review go to Saratoga.com or troyrecord.com

“Steel Magnolias,” Curtain Call Theatre, Latham

It’s hard to knock a play about friendship. It’s especially difficult when the friends are a group of diverse and decent women living in a small Louisiana town. They are sweet yet tough, and so local you can almost smell the magnolias outside.

Actually, in “Steel Magnolias,” which is playing at Curtain Call Theatre in Latham through June 24, it’s not magnolias that you might smell, it’s hair spray as the play takes place at a beauty salon located in a converted garage. And it’s set in the 1980s – an era of big hair.

Indeed, the cast deserves special mention as a couple of the women spend a lot of their time styling hair while others sit and have their hair (or wigs) teased and trimmed. All this and delivering lines as well.

But, perhaps, this double duty is really at the heart of why this talented group of individual falls short as an ensemble. While individual performances clearly define the characters rarely do you become involved with the emotional undercurrents of the play. You accept what’s going on onstage but rarely do you believe it.

Steel Magnolias” is a play that runs more than 2 ½ hours and in which nothing much happens. Instead of the fast pace needed to hide that fact, director Cindy Brizzell-Bates permits the performers the indulgence of slow deliveries and punctuating pauses.

However, it all looks good. Andy Nice designed a functional set that reflects the personality of its brash owner and Sherry Recinella’s costumes are period perfect.

However, problems aside, “Steel Magnolia’s” is an indestructible, feel good, sad play that has a strong following. Those people will enjoy the Curtain Call production.

“Steel Magnolia’s” at Curtain Call Theatre in Latham. Through June 24.