Old Wicked Songs

MTC Hits High Note with Songs

Two-character plays can feel like theatrical tennis, a back-and-forth with each character trying to upset the other. However, with only two actors, Marin Theatre Company’s new production is not really a two-character play; music and the city of Vienna make up a vibrant quartet.

Old Wicked Songs takes place in 1986, a year in which Kurt Waldheim, a former Nazi, is about to be elected to the Presidency. But Josef Mashkan’s studio, like much of the city, seems to date from the previous century. Its Old World furnishings cluster around a shawl-draped grand piano.

A young American, Stephen Hoffman, arrives at the studio looking for Prof. Schiller, a piano teacher who will guide him to a new career as a vocal accompanist. This is a desperation move for Hoffman. A former child prodigy, he has now burnt out and can no longer solo. (Later he will declare, “I was not a prodigy. I was a mimic.”)

When he encounters Mashkan, a leather-vested vocal coach and not the piano teacher, he’s ready to quit. However, Prof. Schiller, in Munich for the time being, insists that all his students start by learning to sing, prodigies not excepted.

And so they begin; Mashkan teaches and Hoffman learns. First, says the teacher, his student must seduce the piano: “Flirt with her. Run your hand through her strings. Strum.” Then he must grasp the difference between “passionate” and “Broadway.” But nationality is handicapping Hoffman, the teacher suggests; Americans can probably never become great artists because they have never been invaded. Austria, he says, is great because it has suffered through two wars.

As an example of musical greatness and passion, they begin with Schumann’s sorrowful Dichterliebe, an 1840 work based on the love poems of Heinrich Heine. They sing in German. Their frequent coffee breaks include an offer of (as well as a charge for) Viennese pastries. From time to time, Mashkan lobs an occasional anti-semitic witticism.

And then Hoffman declares that he will miss the next lesson. He’s going to Munich to see Schiller himself, and while he’s there, he’ll fulfill an obligation to his father. The announcement sparks anxiety in Mashkan. Teaching is central to his life, and Hoffman is his only student. Yet Stephen’s trip to Munich and beyond, as well as the Waldheim election, will create the bond “between sadness and joy” that is the foundation of artistic greatness.

Director Barbara Damashek describes Jon Marans’ play, a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1996, as, “a redemption play.” She has blessed this wise, intelligent story with all the essentials. The actors -- Jarion Monroe as Mashkan and Mark Farrell as Hoffman – contrast just enough to make their continuing interaction believable. Brandon Adams and Jeff Mockus collaborate on the music and sound, with Mockus adding additional effects for a thunderstorm and a stuck record. Steve Coleman created the worn-down Viennese studio set, furnished with Carol Selig’s props. And Todd Roehrman designed costumes that disclose the characters’ changes.

So what are the “Old, Wicked Songs?” That information doesn’t appear until the final moments, but by that time, it’s superfluous. The audience already knows.

Old Wicked Songs is at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue in Mill Valley, through April 16, with performances at varying times, Tuesdays through Sundays. For complete information, call the box office at 388-5208 or see www.marintheatre.org