John Cusack says he first encountered a modern version of commedia dell’arte–the satirical, seemingly improvisational form of entertainment popular in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries–several years ago in Los Angeles. “Me and my friend Jeremy Piven went to see the Actors’ Gang,” headed by actor Tim Robbins. “We were wowed by them, by their energy. It was a revelation–a total contrast to the boring movie I was doing at the time. So we started jammin’ with them.”
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Three of the four plays New Crime has put on over the past three years–subversive lampoons of pre-Nazi Germany, the French Revolution, and Red Brigade Italy–reveal its founders’ political bent. Critic Anthony Adler, writing in Chicago magazine, said New Crime “gave me back my faith in theater as a political discourse.” But Cusack says the group tries not to be preachy. “I don’t believe in denying an audience entertainment. We present more of a spectacle. We want theater to be fun and passionate.” The New Crime style has “touches of the Kabuki,” says Cusack, “and there are definite influences of Brecht and Weill.” Among New Crime’s hallmarks are the masklike makeup worn by the players and the funky, distorted, mostly black-and-white sets that pay homage to German expressionism. They also use a live band to punctuate the comic timing.
To Cusack, Thompson belongs in a pantheon of great political writers alongside George Orwell and Noam Chomsky. “They’re interested in getting hold of the truth. They ask: What is capitalism? Democracy? They shake us from apathy. Too many people today don’t give a fuck, you know. Some friends of mine have gone corporate. They play it safe. But deep inside they want a purpose, they want the truth. That’s what’s so great about Thompson; he takes us on a surrealistic trip to Las Vegas, the bone marrow of the American Dream turned nightmare. Yet he shows you the reality–what the power structure really is. He exposes the puritanism and racism that have plagued this country for so long.” Thompson also “foresaw the emergence of the right wing, from Nixon to Bush,” marvels Cusack. Thompson, who came to prominence in the 60s for his chronicle of the Hell’s Angels, has come to personify irreverent, on-the-edge journalism, and his work gleefully deflates the pretentious and skewers the status quo–setting a standard for Cusack and his fellow actors.
