Driven by a strong concern for social justice and the abuses of capitalism, Charles Dickens wrote Hard Times. Set in 1854 Lancashire, it exposes the oppression of the working classes and the sterility of Victorian education -- his only book without a happy ending. And while the story carries a moral indictment, as well as colorful characters, adapting it for the stage is tricky.
The Pearl Theater Company can be lauded for the effort, now playing at City Center, but audiences should be forewarned: Hard Times is demanding, three-hour fare. For openers, six characters play some 24 roles, so keeping track of the drama, staged in the miserable Coketown, takes intense concentration.
Coketown is a template for capitalism without conscience. The town's pompous factory owner, a classic Dickensian villain named Josiah Bounderby (Bradford Cover), reduces industrial workers to "Hands," while Mr. Gradgrind (T.J. Edwards), who runs a model school, indoctrinates the children with facts. Never wonder, he warns, damning any imaginative impulses to a Victorian hell.
His children, Louisa (Rachel Botchan) and Tom (Sean McNall), are victims of such harsh ideology; each suborned by the emotional misery of their lives. Louisa is married off to Bounderby, while Tom proves a bad seed. They, in turn, will cross paths with Sissy (Jolly Abraham), and various weavers (Robin Leslie Brown, Edwards), whose lives are studies in unending despair. As the play's ethical center, Louisa dares to defy convention -- and she will discover Dickens' larger message: We are more than the sum of our parts.
Hard Times is a story within a story -- positing issues of class warfare and the horrors of social indifference. As a morality tale, it's sobering; as theater, it's thoughtful but difficult. The acting and staging are up to the Pearl's usual high standards, but the material doesn't lend itself easily to theater, despite Stephen Jeffreys best efforts. However, hard-core Dickens fans will embrace the challenge.
Similarly, Measure for Measure, now playing at the Duke, confronts social hypocrisy with one of Shakespeare's traditional "problem" plays. A Theater for a New Audience production, it's scored a hit. In fact, the sassy satire, staged with great energy by Arin Arbus, seems wholly contemporary. In Measure for Measure, the Duke (Jefferson Mays) ostensibly leaves town, putting his deputy Angelo (Rocco Sisto) in charge. The Duke hopes Angelo will put a stop to Vienna's vice, being unable to do so himself. To watch his progress, the Duke disguises himself as a friar.
However, Angelo, like all puritanical crusaders, goes too far. He arrests young Claudio (LeRoy McClain), charges him with impregnating his fiancée, and passes a sentence of death. Claudio implores his sister Isabella, a novice, (Elisabeth Waterston) to intercede with Angelo on his behalf. She does -- only to discover that Angelo is happy to commit the same sins with her he's arrested Claudio for. Isabella is forced to choose: chastity or Claudio.
As the drama unfolds, and various machinations ensue, Shakespeare unmasks political and moral chicanery; he finds "vice" often nobler than Angelo's touted, but little-practiced virtues. The ensemble is uniformly strong, especially Claudio's friend Lucio (Alfredo Narciso), Mays and Sisto. The direction, which neatly pitches the action on two-tiered levels -- sinful debauchery above, staid moral hypocrisy below -- is engaging. This Measure is nicely proportioned.
Keeping within a classical vein, Rachmaninoff devotees enjoyed a treat Sunday, Feb. 21, when Denis Matsuev made a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall performing various Rachmaninoff works, including "Fuga in D Minor," transcribed for piano by Rachmaninoff himself in 1891. In addition, he played Tchaikovsky's "Seasons" and Mussorgky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" with great finesse. Matsuev has a delicate touch, yet intense delivery; he infuses already dramatic music with a new and wonderful vitality.
Since his victory at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Matsuev is regarded as a star on the international concert stage. Recent and upcoming performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the London Symphony Orchestra.