Paris Commune. A World Premiere of this Musical Docudrama at Boston’s ArtsEmerson

Kate Buddeke

ArtsEmerson’s début play of the 2012-2013 season was a world première, Paris Commune, a musical docudrama created by the Civilians. Founded in 2001 by Artistic Director Steve Cosson and a group of associate artists including writer and composer Michael Friedman, the company is committed to investigative theatre, which means researching topics of socio-political significance to generate a play. Most often the finished work is based on interviews. Paris Commune is the Civilians’ first production adopted from historical documents.

A non-profit organization, the company relies on grants, donations, and artist residencies to fund and develop its productions. Its relationship with ArtsEmerson began three seasons ago with In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards. The Civilians spent part of the development/rehearsal period at ArtsEmerson’s facilities before presenting it here in January 2011. Tales from My Parent’s Divorce, a collective creation directed by Anne Kaufman, underwent a similar procedure in the fall of 2011.

 

Paris Commune, developed over several years at Emerson and elsewhere, recounts its version of the fascinating, but unfamiliar story of the 1871 rebellion when the Paris working class installed the Commune – arguably, the world’s first socialist government – in the French capital. The uprising followed on the heels of the disastrous 1870 Franco-Prussian war, which caused near starvation among Parisians, and ended with the Prussian bombardment and the city’s surrender. For approximately two months the “Communards” ruled, a rule that began in idealism and then factionalized. National troops sent from the exiled government in Versailles put down the revolution violently.

The actors, in multiple roles, tell the story through song, dance, enacted scenes, and narration culled from materials of the era. Narration flows into monologue, dialogue, and song. Cosson and Friedman found contemporaneous popular music which Friedman translated into English. Interestingly, the airs and lyrics are similar to modern French songs in the style of Édith Piaff or Yves Montand. Broadly drawn characters are either historical or fictional class types or, in one case, a cross between the two. Among the first are Louise Michel (Jeanine Serralles), a school teacher, fighter for egalitarianism, and chronicler of the events; La Bordas (Kate Buddeke), a singer who incarnated the revolutionary spirit; Elisabeth Dmitrieff (Nina Hellman), a Russian Socialist sent by Karl Marx to check out the Commune; and Adolphe Thiers (Brian Sgambati), the provisional French president who crushed the Commune. Père Duchêne (Sam Breslin Wright), the crossover, is a militant journalist in the play, but, in reality, was the name of a revolutionary newspaper. The Baker (Daniel Jenkins) and his seamstress wife (Aysan Celik) are emblematic of the suffering and courageous working class. Her boss, and owner of the dress shop (Kate Buddeke), symbolizes the petite bourgeoisie.

Framing the play is a revolutionary concert held at the Tuilleries Palace starring La Bordas. In Brechtian manner the show begins with cast members in street clothes describing the former royal palace, which became the entertainment home of the Communards, where all manner of people came for fun. And then it slips back in time as La Bordas in period costume crosses downstage to a piano where she sings her trademark “La Canaille” (The Scum).The song glorifies the “scum” that rebelled in 1789 and, by extension, the Communards, their 1871 equivalents. Other notable songs include the Commune activist Jean-Baptiste Clément’s touching ballad “Le Temps des cerises” (Cherry Time) – still a hit in mid twentieth-century France – and the socialist/communist anthem “L’Internationale” whose words were written by Eugène Pottier, another Communard. High culture makes an appearance in the persona of the Soprano (Charlotte Dobbs). In contrast with La Bordas’ husky voice, raw style, and rough audience, the Soprano sings light opera coloratura pieces for the hauts bourgeois who had taken refuge in Versailles. At the play’s end, we return to the Tuilleries where the palace has been burned down, a casualty of the Commune’s lost battle with the larger, more powerful society.

The mise en scène calls on purposely dated techniques such as marches and tableaux that evoke late nineteenth and early twentieth-century pageants. The guiding spirit behind the images is Delacroix’s “Liberty Guiding the People,” and Goya’s “Disasters of War” although the paintings are not replicated. Women throw themselves on cannon to save them from the French army; the red flags of the Commune are defiantly waved; the communards are executed by the military. Unfortunately, the authenticity of these moments is marred by occasional mispronunciations of proper names.

The main playing area is a low platform placed on the stage about a third of the way up. Set on it are two smaller platforms, one left, the other right, each with a table and bentwood chair. Footlights line the bottom of the principal platform. However, the upstage blocking distances the actors from the audience making it difficult to see in the dim light and causing audibility problems. Paris is represented by two kiosks on either side plastered with advertisements. These same kiosks are also used as podiums. Black and white photographs of the era provide information and mood. Music is provided by a piano down left on the actual stage.

Somewhat awkwardly interwoven into the script is the history of the cancan as a complete rejection of bourgeois values with its own revolutionary tendencies. Before becoming professionally performed in cabarets, it was a provocative, highly sexualized dance of the working class. The use of the cancan was meant to work by analogy, but proved confusing. Performed twice during the show, the cast danced energetically, but demonstrated little of the cancan’s famed transgressive quality. It was appended to a chronicle of uprisings and a broader and more international history of the labor struggle. For example, the 1968 French student insurrection and the Occupy movement are briefly referenced.

And that is one of the problems of the production. While ambitious in scope, it inclines toward the cursory, sometimes skipping over or minimizing crucial incidents. The Prussian siege of Paris is reduced to a lighthearted apocryphal anecdote as we race through history. At the same time, the show’s unabashed revolutionary fervor and its correlation with present day political turmoil can and does sweep up audiences.

Paris Commune played at Emerson’s Paramount theatre from September 20 to 23, 2012 before moving to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and further touring.

ArtsEmerson presented The Civilians’ Production of Paris Commune

Writers: Steve Cosson and Michael Friedman

Director: Steve Cosson

Song Adapter: Michael Friedman

Scenic Design: Alexander Dodge

Costume Design: Sarah Beers

Lighting Design: Thomas Dunn

Sound Design: Ken Travis and Benjamin Furiga

Musical Director/Pianist: Jonathan Mastro

Choreography: Tracy Bersley

Cast

La Bordas, Dressmaker and others – Kate Buddeke

Seamstress and others – Aysan Celick

Elisabeth Dmitrieff and others – Nina Hellman

The Soprano – Charlotte Dobbs

Louise Michel and others – Jeanine Corrales

French army officer, Adolph Thiers, Ralph Renault and others – Brian Sgambati

Baker and others – Daniel Jenkins

Le Père Duchêne, Paris Guardsman, General Rossel and others – Sam Breslin Wright