Physicians and Culture     10/97

by Del Meyer, MD

It is always a pleasure to greet our colleagues at various cultural events. Since our Medical Society no longer provides a monthly gathering to get to know each other, Sacramento Medicine has for the past four years striven to devote two issues a year to help us get acquainted. The annual Summer Travel and Leisure issue and the fall Physicians and Culture issue are such attempts.

Local and regional theatre continues to provide some of our richest cultural opportunities. Sacramento Theater Company officially welcomed its new Artistic Director, Stephen Rothman who has made his mark nationwide in theater, film, and television. It’s this combination of talent and experience that makes him the "man of the season" for the dramatic arts as he implements his vision to make the Sacramento Theater Company the foremost theatre company in all of California.

He opened the season with the self directed play "Camping with Henry and Tom," a play concerning an outing shared by President Harding, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. It was written by Steve’s personal friend Mark St. Germain and proved to be a popular favorite of Sacramento audiences.

Steve handed out Boxed Baseballs to all 13 year subscribers as he embarked on making this a major league theater. We wish him and our community success as he opens what promises to be a superb second season.

The American Conservatory Theater production of "Machinal" gave us a glimpse into women’s issues of 1928 including abuse which must have been even more prominent than what we observe today. The theater continues to provide us with a perspective which reminds us of our own humanity. Artistic Director Carey Perloff, after a shaky start for three years, has finally meshed with her audience.

One of the premier theater companies of the western United States is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which runs annually from February to November in Ashland. The OSF covers all the Shakespearean plays in academic fashion and this year presented two of the least well known as they completed the 38 play canon for the third time in their 62 year history. One of the non-Shakespearean productions which brings together Art, Modern and recent History is David Edgar’s "Pentecost," which is mounted on the Angus Bowmer stage. The regional press called this the "meatiest" offering of the season.

"Pentecost" begins after the "toppling of Babel" according to the director Tony Taccone. In a 1995 speech, David Edgar explained the play as being a response to the "failure of the universal communist utopia." Communism, Edgar said "sought to reveal the universal in humankind by stripping off the bark of past traditions, and clothing the subsequent naked trunks in uniform." As the plot develops, the play is alternately a tragedy, a comedy, as well as mystery and political thriller.

The story takes place in a newly freed Soviet state simply referred to as "Our Country." A group of scholars make a groundbreaking art discovery in a Central European Church. The fresco they uncover is very similar to Giotto’s "Lamentation" in the Arena Chapel in Padua. Could history have been wrong all these years and Western art really dates to several centuries earlier to this church? There is a heated debate for control of the incredible fresco by religious and political leaders. In searching for the truth, the politicos try to determine "whose interests are served" reverting to Leninist thinking.

Before the academic debate is settled, they are seized by a band of refugees seeking asylum and work permits. But "Our Country" is financially broke and would rather prove to the West it deserves membership in the European Community than take on the burden of these refugees, no matter how tragic their individual pasts.

At one point the 21 actors are on stage speaking nine different dialects. This is analogous to the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:6-9) when different languages came into being and people for the first time were unable to communicate with each other. The play is an exploration of what can happen when you bring together a motley crew of nationalities, religions, languages and self-interests.

The fundamental question is whether the only alternative to this unified utopia (The Soviets’ Tower of Babel) is a return to national and religious fundamentalism? Or can magic happen as in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-6 on Pentecost (The word never occurs in the body of the play) when everyone could understand each other as if speaking in his own tongue.

Pentecost is as contemporary as today’s newspaper, tackling the issues of war, poverty, the weight of history and the value of great art. The play unfolds beautifully, and as the critics enthused, is a tour de force.

If you missed it in Ashland, Tony Taccone, who directed it, is the new artistic director at Berkeley Repertory Theater and will present the play as his season opener this fall proving yet again that local and regional theater continues to be a richly rewarding cultural experience.