Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic
forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted
by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others
by streaming new shows. And we take the opportunity to explore
other vintage productions preserved online. Until things return to
normal we review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.
Bleacher
Bums
Organic
Theater, Chicago 1979 and YouTube December 2022
A
piece of theatre history, a demonstration of the potentials of group
creation, a touch of sports sociology, the chance to see two future
stars early in their careers, and just a fun show – this gem from the
depths of YouTube is well worth an hour of your time.
The
spread of theatrical activity beyond New York that transformed the face
of the American theatre in the second half of the Twentieth Century hit
Chicago in the 1970s, with the birth of such powerhouses as Steppenwolf,
Wisdom Bridge and a dozen others.
Under
the direction of Stuart Gordon, Organic Theatre specialised in
group-created and improvisation-generated works, and authorship credit
for Bleacher Bums (staged in 1976; recorded for television in 1979) is
given to everyone in the cast.
Bleacher
Bums is an almost plotless look at an afternoon in the lives of
dedicated baseball fans in the cheapest seats at a Chicago Cubs game.
(One
of Chicago's two baseball teams, the Cubs were perennial
bottom-of-the-league losers, whose fans took a perverse pride in the
masochism that kept them loyal.)
We
see a half-dozen stalwarts bracing themselves for the highs and lows of
a probably disappointing day, and the characterisations created by each
performer are openly types, even occasionally cartoons.
There's
an evidently successful businessman able to take the afternoon off, a
typical working stiff probably not supposed to be taking the afternoon
off, a nerdy kid patronised by the others, and so on.
Flavouring
the mix are a blind man who keeps up with the action on the field
through his pocket radio, an attractive young woman who has come just to
get a suntan – one plot thread wonders who, if anyone, she will leave
with – and a trouble-maker who cheers for the opposition as much to
annoy the others as to make a predictable daily profit from betting
against the Cubs.
Making
bets is as much a part of the day for these fans as drinking beer, and
since none except the wise guy would ever bet against the Cubs, there
are constant side bets – will anyone on either team score this inning,
will the next batter get a hit, will constant heckling distract the
opposing outfielder so he misses a catch?
Small
amounts – and in occasional moments of over-enthusiasm, dangerously
large amounts – of money constantly change hands back and forth.
For
British audiences it may be striking how generally happy and harmless
this all is. Unlike British football fans, these guys don't seem to have
their entire sense of self dependent on the team they support – they
clearly have almost as much fun watching the Cubs lose as they would at
the rare win – and there is no hint of the kind of hooliganism that mars
some British games.
A little googling tells me that most of the cast here went on to steady if not stellar careers, largely in Chicago theatre. The two you'll know are Joe Mantegna, later a leading stage and film interpreter of David Mamet's plays, and Dennis Franz, star of a string of successful TV series.
As the businessman and implicit leader of the group Mantegna displays
the calm authority that would be his trademark in later performances,
with just the slightest hint of tightly-controlled danger that would
make him so effective in Mamet.
Franz, considerably thinner than later television fans will remember him, has the core of the character – crude, working-class, but with occasional glimpses of surprising depth or softness – that he would play in various guises for the rest of his career.
Gerald Berkowitz
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