May 24–31, 2001

arts picks|theater

Amazing But True!

Timing is, of course, everything. This is again obvious to the Interact Theatre Company, who will conclude their season with the U.S. premiere of Jason Sherman’s It’s All True.

The comedy, directed by Seth Rozin, focuses on the struggles endured by Orson Welles and John Houseman in attempting to stage Marc Blitzstein’s controversial leftist musical The Cradle Will Rock (also explored by Tim Robbins in his 1999 film). Because the play grapples with censorship and labor conflicts within Hollywood — topics which have been on the mind of media watchers everywhere, what with the Writers Guild of America’s recent contract settlement and the possible forthcoming strike of the Screen Actors Guild — Interact Theatre Company is once more demonstrating a tendency toward clairvoyance.

Past shows have been so rich with then-current content that they’ve added a Twilight Zone-esque subtext to the productions. Submitted for your approval: In Nixon’s Nixon, Tricky Dick complains that the 1960 election was so close he should have had a recount. The play ran at InterAct in October/November 2000 — perfect timing for a country hanging chad. Tom Gibbons’ docudrama about the MOVE tragedy, 6221, opened in March 1993 — a mere three days after the siege at Waco, Texas began. May 1995 gave us God’s Country about the white supremacist movement and the murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg; it opened two weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing.

Eerie coincidences or incredible foresight? It’s impossible to say. But if InterAct continues to predict the future successfully, this is what their just-announced 2001-02 season augurs for the months ahead: religious strife (David Rambo’s God’s Man In Texas, Oct. 19-Nov. 18, depicts the difficult relationship between a retiring Evangelical Baptist and his successor); transportation trauma (Seth Rozin’s Missing Link, March 29-April 28, relates the religious and emotional crises of a family who loses a child in a plane crash); and, most exciting of all, ALIEN INVASION! (Mary Fengar Gail’s Jambulu, Jan. 18-Feb. 17, portrays the misadventures of misfit scientists who become assimilated by the alien they discover.) I say it’s about time.

—Chris Cummins

Runs May 25-June 24, $12-22. The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-569-9700.