Yossarian lives! The Aquila
Theatre Company’s
marvelous multimedia dramatization of Catch-22,
presented Oct. 9th in Stewart Theatre by N.C.
State University Center Stage, captured all the quirks of Joseph Heller’s wonderfully
wacky World War II novel about the insanity of wars and the shortsightedness
and stupidity of the military bureaucracies that prosecute them — and
pay a horrific price in blood and shattered lives of officers, enlisted
men, and civilians. Peter Meineck, the New York City-based theater
troupe’s artistic director, has imaginatively revamped and
revitalized novelist Joseph Heller’s own 1971 stage adaptation
of his 1961 novel about American aviators making sometimes suicidal
bombing runs on key European targets from an island off the coast
of Italy.
Catch-22 is a crowd-pleasing black comedy, punctuated
by an eye-catching sampling of motion-picture footage from B-25
bombing runs and related still photographs — projected on
a giant rear screen between and during the scenes — plus
a choice selection of musical snippets from World War II and more
modern hits. Together, these images and sounds underscore the absurdist
humor and occasional pathos of the events depicted.
Meineck, who doubles as the show's lighting designer, combines with
technical director Ryan Brooke, costume designer Sarah Cubbage, and
sound designer Duncan Cutler to give Catch-22 a splendid
staging. Their evocation of the cockpit and bombadier’s bubble
of the B-25 bomber in which Yossarian flies mission after mission,
braving storms of flak and bullets from German fighters, is an ingenious
two-story construction of the front end of a B-25, with Yossarian
peering into his bomb site, his face strobed by flashes from the
bombs that the B-25 has dropped. The plane’s pilot
and co-pilot are seated above Yossarian, and the B-25’s waist
and tail gunners sit on office chairs on rollers, in a rectangle
of light, behind the set piece, where they can constantly swivel
to spot and strafe German fighters.
Steve Stout is a hoot as U.S. Army Air Corps Capt. John Yossarian,
a burnt-out bombardier who has an Armenian surname but claims Assyrian
ancestry; and Richard Sheridan Willis is hilarious as the hopelessly
hypochondriacal squadron physician Doc Daneeka, who tells the war-weary
Yossarian that he cannot classify him as crazy via Section 8, excuse
him from combat duty, and send him home, because of the infamous “Catch-22.” That
is, “Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t
really crazy.”
Stout gives a wonderfully warm and funny performance as Yossarian;
and Willis not only makes an indelible impression as Doc Daneeka,
but also is delightful as the ever-elusive squadron commander Major
Major Major Major and the tough Old Man who runs the squadron’s
favorite Roman brothel. Reginald Metcalf is highly amusing as the
squadron’s vainglorious group commander, Col. Cathcart, who
keeps upping the number of missions that must be flown before Yossarian
and company can return to the United States; and Charles Goforth
is a scream as the Texan who works for military intelligence, the
drolly officious ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, and Col. Cathcart’s
sycophantic and somewhat sinister assistant Lt. Col. Korn.
Marc LeVasseur smoothly balances the angst of the increasingly troubled
group Chaplain with the outrageous antics of Yossarian’s nosy
navigator “Aarfy” Aardvark; Daniel Marmion (sharing multiple
roles with Teddy Alvaro) is delightful as the ever-mercenary mess
officer Lt. Milo Minderbinder and 19-year-old boy Lt. Nately; Amanda
Catania is a scream as Luciana the crazy Roman whore and an Old Woman;
and Stephanie Dodd is terrific as beautiful Nurse Duckett, whom Yossarian
chases until she catches him, and Nately’s Whore, a homicidal
lunatic who blames Yossarian for her boyfriend’s death.
Thanks to Peter Meinick’s restoration of scenes from the novel
and resequencing of the play to follow the book’s nonlinear
dramatic arc, Catch-22 has a very good chance of graduating
from work-in-progress on tour to a hit on Broadway or in London’s
West End. The highly energetic production that played Stewart Theatre
on Oct. 9th was a real treat for the N.C. State University Center
Stage audience.
N.C.
State University Center Stage: http://www.ncsu.edu/centerstage/.
Aquila Theatre Company: http://www.aquilatheatre.com/.
