See all in Theater

Slideshow: The Slutcracker

Theater

Flights of angels

Among the ways in which Wings is torn out of history and repositioned in the present is the addition of a newscaster, in this case WBUR’s Robin Young, who takes her place from time to time at a table under a huge light to read the news of the day — and at one point to recite from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies. As befits the decision to remove Wings from divided Berlin to the stage itself, the theater piece eschews illusion — stunningly. What’s on stage are a bunch of white plastic chairs, a few café tables, and the snack truck where, in the film, former angel Peter Falk senses Damiel’s presence and invites him to cross over and drink coffee while smoking a cigarette (“If you do it together, it’s fantastic”). But in a simple visual coup by set designer André Joosten, the passage between Heaven and Earth takes the form of cylinders of falling sand, though which both a man crossing into death and the angel crossing into life must travel. That most of the cast, passing through these hourglass-like cascades, must wander around looking as if they had bad cases of dusty dandruff seems a small price to pay for the effect, which is magical (especially as Damiel, with utmost delicacy, cradles the dying man under his shower of sand). Of course the stage does get to be a bit of a sandbox; as part of the party, complete with thunderous rock and dancing and a kid on a skateboard, that explodes as Damiel crosses over, a whole lot of sweeping goes on.

As for the script, much of it is lifted straight from the film, with its enigmatic interior monologues by the great German playwright and poet Peter Handke. When the theater piece digresses, it’s usually to enforce the audience connection and offer references to various locations in the present, including here. (“Notable Cantabrigians,” lists the Sam Shepard–like figure who stands in for Falk as the former angel: “Matt Damon, Noam Chomsky, Julia Child.”) The poetic stretches of interior thought (somewhat reduced but still long) are passed back and forth among the characters and the two guitarists/singers and sometimes turned into lyrics. Some of this makes sense. But other transpositions from the film, including the dying man’s rant (partly in Dutch) about borders guarded by militia and people who are their own isolated state, worked better in Berlin. Similarly, the former angel’s trying on of hats that he hopes will help him fade into the Boston background and his wondering aloud whether the director likes his work were more logical in the film, where the Falk character was an actor making a film. I get it: this is a stage piece, he’s an actor, and he wonders whether Mafaalani likes his work. But wouldn’t he have tried on hats in wardrobe weeks ago rather than on stage in performance? One wonders whether theatergoers unfamiliar with the film will be bewitched or bewildered by what is more an analogue to Wings of Desire than a reinvention.

• Share:
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•