BAAL
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There are also a number of compelling reasons not to put this play on. Seen by many as a parody of German expressionism and/or an homage to the Sturm und Drang (“storm and stress”) movement, the play is difficult to perform outside its historical context. One runs the risk that Baal will be seen today not so much as an antihero pointing out society’s alienation and hypocrisy but as a womanizing, masturbatory asshole. The complicated script is hopelessly ambitious and littered with difficult passages.
It’s hard to say what director Paul Wolf and Off the Street Theatre had in mind when they decided to stage Baal. The play’s appeal is obvious, but the production offers little to overcome its difficulties. What this production really points up is just how hard a script it is to carry off.
This production also features an excessive amount of nervous laughter. In order to create the raucous characters of beer-soaked nightclubbers and bawdy forest workers, the actors are forced to chuckle loudly and unbelievably at lines that, in this contemporary context, do not seem very funny.
