A survivor left to remember what a culture had once offered its citizens
Jack is a survivor but don’t mistake this for a story about an action hero, prevailing against all odds. His former father-in-law and ex-wife are part of the intelligentsia, a group that Jack was once on the periphery of but has since rejected.
In Wallace Shawn’s The Designated Mourner a new authoritarian government has taken over, with little love for intellectuals. In fact, it begins executing them and whether out of laziness, fear or true conviction, Jack further distances himself from them and their attachment to highbrow culture.
This is the third time Catastrophic Theatre has presented The Designated Mourner, and the third time Greg Dean has played Jack. It was a last minute add to this season after Catastrophic announced that “Due to events in her native country of Iran, The Catastrophic Theatre’s production of Afsaneh Aayani’s Romeos and Juliets has been indefinitely postponed.”
Dean says one reason he likes playing Jack is “I haven’t ever gotten to the bottom of it. The complexity of the characters in this play, they all seem to really, really contain a lot of depth.
“Also, Jack is so horrible. It’s really fun to save that stuff and get the shocked reactions from people. I sense sometimes that people want to just start booing him,” says Dean. “He’s an understandable person but he is, to some degree, arguably a monster.”
Jack wanted to be a part of the intelligentsia, particularly in the world of letters, Dean says. “He either didn’t have the knack for it or he was too lazy or the people who should have been helping him become that type of person refused to teach him.
“In his view he was just kept out and seems to be fueled mostly by resentment.”
His former father-in-law Howard(Charlie Scott) is one of the longstanding leading literary figures in their society, but doesn’t want to include Jack in his circle and treats him with open contempt. “He treats Jack like the fool in front of everyone.”
Howard and Judy (Patricia Duran) die by the end of the two-act play. “Howard won’t renounce anything that he has written – anything that would be uncomfortable for the current regime.” The new powers that be offer Howard the chance to write something that they’d like better, but Howard declines, Dean says.
Judy was a part of that group of writers and intellectuals who have at least spoken out against government policy, Dean says
“But Jack has no trouble shedding all of the previous alliances and slipping further and further away from that group of people. He decides to go 100 percent lowbrow and walk away from all that stuff that he was never allowed to be a part of anyway. Lots of sour grapes.”
Add to that the fact that Judy “was always on the fence between her father and Jack.”
“At one time Jack showed a great deal of promise. As the play takes place, his best quality would probably be that he is a charming seducer. Trying to be let off the hook for stuff that he feels guilty about.”
He chooses instead of taking any kind of stand or doing anything in support of truth and justice and freedom and democracy, he slinks off and watches from the shadows as everybody is rounded up and executed. And he feels guilty about that.
“One of the things that emerges is he does have a deep sense of guilt even though on the surface he convinces himself that he wasn’t wrong but he knows underneath that he probably has some things to apologize for.”
“We can see how from resentment a crumbling society can happen, Dean says. Still, despite the executions , the oppressive regime and Jack’s far from sterling character, Dean insists that this play includes many funny parts.
Shawn, well known as an actor (The Princess Bride, Toy Story, My Dinner With Andre) is also a prolific playwright (The Fever, Marie and Bruce) and a favorite of The Catastrophic Theatre. As Dean puts it, he and Catastrophic Artistic Director Jason Nodler “always think it’s time to do this play again.
“Unfortunately, Wallace Shawn’s plays keep being timely. He keeps predicting what’s going to happen and it’s usually not good. “
Performances are scheduled for April 10-25 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston, 3400 Main. For more information, call 713-521-4533 or visit matchouston.org. Pay what you can.
