'The Great Divide,' Shotgun Players: review

The Great Divide: Drama. By Adam Chanzit. Directed by Mina Morita. Through June 24. Shotgun Players, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. One hour, 50 minutes. $20-$30.             (510) 841-6500      . www.shotgunplayers.org.

The stakes are a lot higher and the action more concentrated in Adam Chanzit's "The Great Divide" than in its source, Henrik Ibsen's classic "An Enemy of the People." The dramatic payoff isn't as potent, but the mostly engrossing "Divide" drills into its personal and social issues with an intensity that's inescapable.

Ibsen meets fracking in the Shotgun Players' world premiere that opened Friday. Where Ibsen's crusading Dr. Tomas Stockmann discovers that his Norwegian coastal town's prized health spa is heavily polluted, Chanzit's Dr. Katherine Stockmann is confronted with evidence that her remote Colorado community's new economic lifeline, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, is poisoning its air and water.

The central conflict, between human lives and their livelihood, remains the same, though many more lives are at risk in "Divide." So is the health of the planet, a peril that Chanzit makes all the more present through careful understatement.

Some elements of that bio-economic conflict are less well developed than others, though director Mina Morita's sure-handed stagings generate urgency with a breathy harmonica soundtrack and oil-rig work crews making swift alterations in Martin Flynn's rustic set. Some of the psychological drama is less compelling than Ibsen's and some is more nuanced, though the uneven cast doesn't always do it justice.

In the most striking departure from Ibsen, Chanzit's Dr. Stockmann is a reluctant crusader, a medical activist who's returned to her old family homestead - husband and two children in tow - to retire from the many years she's spent fighting human rights battles in Brazil, Ecuador and elsewhere. Heather Robison commands focus with her delicate delineation of the degrees of Katherine's exhaustion, conflicted realization of the need for her to act and clear-headed, steely dedication to the cause.

As in Ibsen, the forces of commercial expediency - at any human cost - are led by the doctor's elder brother Peter, painfully aware that despite his position as mayor, he lives in the shadow of his more accomplished younger sibling. Scott Phillips invests the role's wheeler-dealing machinations, threats, bullying, cronyism and skillful demagoguery with enlivening if somewhat monochromatic energy.

Much of the town will be on his side, and he's literally in bed with the oil company - or its local agent, Rita (Sarita Ocón). Katherine's principal ally is her college-age daughter Petra (a sincere Luisa Frasconi). A supposedly crusading journalist (Ryan Tasker) gets cold feet in an underdeveloped subplot. A potentially intriguing wrinkle is introduced by Katherine and Peter's mother - played with tart, enigmatic terseness by Michaela Greeley - but it goes nowhere.

Arguments for the economic benefits, even necessity of the fracking are made with some force, though they might carry more weight against Ibsen's arrogantly self-righteous Dr. Stockmann. Chanzit's attempt to complicate Katherine's goodness by showing its cost to her family are undercut by her palpable sincerity, despite the appealing fragility of Samuel Berston as her young son.

But such defects only detract from "Divide" sporadically. Most of its conflicts are compelling. Morita paces it like a breaking news story, peppered with sharp cameos by Joe Estlack, Sabrina De Mio, Rebecca Pingree and Hugo E. Carbajal. And its fracking subject matter couldn't be more timely.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/27/DDRC1OMO16.DTL#ixzz1wd7892B8

Shotgun's 'The Great Divide': social drama punches hard and leaves you thinking

Why do we go to see plays? Leaving aside the grand musical spectacles (Les Miserables, etcetera) which are so popular, isn't it true that, as entertainment, most people find most plays are a poor substitute for a good film, a rock concert, or a sporting event? What do we find in the theatre that we don't find elsewhere presented with more fun and accessibility and cheaper to boot? Why do we bother with this dinosaur?

As a reviewer who typically goes to several plays a week, this is a question that constantly engages me. I haven't found a glib answer.

But often enough, I'm glad to say, I attend a play and feel, to a greater or lesser degree, as if I have figuratively stuck my finger into an electric socket, and leave the theatre feeling as if something powerful has passed into me. This is hard to describe but the sensation is unmistakable and I don't encounter it elsewhere. Fellow theatre lovers will know the feeling of which I write, although they may find themselves equally flummoxed trying to put it into words.

Shotgun's 'The Great Divide': social drama punches hard and leaves you thinking

Why do we go to see plays? Leaving aside the grand musical spectacles (Les Miserables, etcetera) which are so popular, isn't it true that, as entertainment, most people find most plays are a poor substitute for a good film, a rock concert, or a sporting event? What do we find in the theatre that we don't find elsewhere presented with more fun and accessibility and cheaper to boot? Why do we bother with this dinosaur?

As a reviewer who typically goes to several plays a week, this is a question that constantly engages me. I haven't found a glib answer.

But often enough, I'm glad to say, I attend a play and feel, to a greater or lesser degree, as if I have figuratively stuck my finger into an electric socket, and leave the theatre feeling as if something powerful has passed into me. This is hard to describe but the sensation is unmistakable and I don't encounter it elsewhere. Fellow theatre lovers will know the feeling of which I write, although they may find themselves equally flummoxed trying to put it into words.Sometimes, it arises from an encounter with archetypal forces and images, powerfully communicated by actors who push themselves to physical and emotional extremes. Sometimes (often with well-produced Shakespeare) the poetry of language beautifully spoken by live actors will do the trick.

Occasionally, the thrill is intellectual, arising from a drama written to seriously examine a social issue from a variety of human perspectives. That sort of drama was pioneered by Norwegian expatriate playwright Henrik Ibsen in the late 19th century. Ibsen perfected the genre of drama as societal commentary.

In The Great Divide, inspired by and loosely based upon Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, playwright Adam Chanzitand director Mina Morita have given us a strong drama about a societal issue. In Ibsen's original play, Dr. Stockman is an admired citizen of a small resort town where his brother is mayor. The town is on the verge of a financial boom, having opened public baths which are thought to have healing properties, and which are attracting large numbers of wealthy tourists. When Dr. Stockman finds that the water has been poisoned by local tanneries, making many people sick, he calls for the baths to be closed. He finds himself hated and despised by the townspeople and even his own brother, as they are unwilling to believe this inconvenient truth.

In Chanzit's contemporary take, the setting is a small town in rural Colorado, where oil companies have been usingfracking technology (a means of using chemicals to create fissures in rock layers, allowing access to natural gas). This technology has created a boom for the local economy, bringing jobs and profits to many.

As in Ibsen's play, Dr. Stockman (a woman this time, played with persuasive passion by Heather Robison) discovers that the technology is contaminating the water supply and making people sick. When she speaks up about this, all hell breaks loose.

Playwright Chanzit does not shy away from exploring the many contradictory ways of viewing this complex situation. There are laborers, townspeople, landowners, family members, company spokespeople—a full complement of stakeholders. The script does an excellent job of showing the many large economic forces and smaller interpersonal pressures that effect the action.

The large cast is thoroughly convincing and works well as an ensemble. Director Mina Morita keeps things moving rapidly, balancing the larger social drama with smaller dramas of personal relationships, carefully played.

Audiences will leave the theatre emotionally excited and intellectually stimulated, having felt a lot and wanting to talk about it. That's what it's all about, right?

The Great Divide continues at the Ashby Stage through June 17th. For further information, click here.

"The Great Divide" by Adam Chanzit, produced by Shotgun Players. Director: Mina Morita. Set Design: Martin Flynn. Sound Design: Colin Trevor. Costume Design: Maggi Yule.

Morten: Samuel Berston. Juan/Ensemble: Hugo E. Carbajal. Jo/Janet/Ensemble: Sabrina de Mio. Brent/Townsperson/Ensemble: Joe Estlack. Petra: Luisa Frasconi. Mrs Stockman: Michaela Greeley. Lyle/Phil/Jono/Ensemble: Carl Hovick-Thomas. Fred/Ralph/Trustee/Ensemble: Paul Loomis. Tom: Edward McCloud. Rita: Sarita Ocon. Peter: Scott Phillips. Mrs. Lewis/EPA Rep/Trustee/Ensemble: Rebecca Pingree. Katherine Stockman: Heather Robison. Hovstad: Ryan Tasker.

This reviewer is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

Rating Guide: 5 stars=outstanding; 4 stars=highly recommended; 3 stars=recommended; 2 stars=somewhat engaging;1 star=disappointing

For a further explanation of the rating system, click here.

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