The Mercury News

‘Waste Land’ inspires visceral drive-in show

Dense, epic poem takes on new meaning in midst of pandemic

- By Sam Hurwitt Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.

T.S. Eliot’s poem sprawling, convoluted 1922 poem “The Waste Land” is revered as one of the essential works of 20th century modernism, but a century later it can strike new readers as forbidding­ly abstruse.

Densely packed with literary allusions and quotations — some in untranslat­ed German, French and Italian — it’s a difficult piece to appreciate in its own right without feeling like you have to read at least a dozen classic works cited as prerequisi­tes.

Now it’s a play of sorts, produced as drive-in theater by Oakland Theater Project (formerly Ubuntu Theater Project) in the parking lot of its downtown Oakland performanc­e space at Flax Art & Design.

With viewers enclosed safely in their cars, the sound piped in through FM radio, this innovative staging lays claim to being the very first production in California to get approval from Actors Equity Associatio­n for live in-person theater with an audience during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a year after all local theaters shut their doors.

The spoken text of company literary manager John Wilkins’ world premiere adaptation is simply Eliot’s poem in its entirety. What makes it an adaptation is also what makes it theatrical and relatively accessible — the visceral urgency with which solo performer Lisa Ramirez, the company’s associate artistic director, brings the poem to life and the way Erin Gilley’s video projection­s contextual­ize the text with appropriat­e atmosphere and modern parallels.

On a practical level, the projection­s also provide an opportunit­y to translate the passages of the poem in various foreign languages into English.

When cars are admitted to the lot, Ramirez is already sitting in a small outdoor stage area, a rectangula­r patch of dirt with the projection screen behind it. She’s dressed by costumer Regina Y. Evans in a dark, shabby suit and tie somewhat reminiscen­t of the tramps of “Waiting for Godot,” the coat patched together with a different fabric in back.

Starting off with a historical video patchwork taking us on a whirlwind ride from the 1918 pandemic to the current one as Ramirez runs in place, artistic director Michael Socrates Moran’s staging is peppered with hectic, barrage-like news montages separating sections of the poem like shocks to the system. Sound designer Elton Bradman accentuate­s the agitation with thundercla­ps and bursts of music.

Performer Ramirez morphs continuall­y through the various voices of the narrative, from breezy barflies to the blind prophet Tiresias. The text is still dense and often mysterious, but Ramirez’s passionate performanc­e packs a palpable punch that makes you hang on every word.

Ramirez is impressive­ly prolific at the moment. This week Theatre First opens its online world premiere “More Than Grapes,” which Ramirez co-wrote with Carlos Aguirre and Jeffrey Lo about the Delano Grape Strike. On May 15 Theatre Works’ New Works Festival Online will feature a performanc­e of Ramirez’s semiautobi­ographical dance/theater piece “pas de deux (lost my shoe).” And this November Oakland Theater Project plans to premiere “SAINT JOAN (burn/burn/burn),” Ramirez’s modern take on the Joan of Arc story.

What’s most impressive about this “Waste Land” is how strongly its feverish, dizzyingly erudite cry of despair echoes these unsettling times. Beyond famous, iconic lines such as “April is the cruelest month” and “I will show you fear in a handful of dust,” less obvious sections carry unexpected resonance.

Ramirez lends a somber weight to the questions “What shall we do to-morrow? What shall we ever do?” that brings to the fore all the accumulate­d angst of the last year. It’s a forceful interpreta­tion of an elusive text that feels just enough larger than life that watching it through your windshield proves no barrier at all.

 ?? CARSON FRENCH — OAKLAND THEATER PROJECT ?? Aided by evocative video projects, Oakland Theater Project’s associate artistic director Lisa Ramirez presents T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” as a visceral and timely night of theater.
CARSON FRENCH — OAKLAND THEATER PROJECT Aided by evocative video projects, Oakland Theater Project’s associate artistic director Lisa Ramirez presents T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” as a visceral and timely night of theater.

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