Kingdom of Earth

Reviewed by Gray Palmer
Odyssey Theatre
Through August 14

Kingdom of Earth, the problematic 1968 play by Tennessee Williams, from the period when theater critics and popular audiences had for the most part abandoned him, is now receiving a troubled guest production at the Odyssey Theatre. The effort, directed by Michael Arabian, is not without some fine work — one great performance (out of three), and some good design. But in this current production, the heart of the play, waiting to be realized, is smothered by a few miscalculations.

There is more than one manner of storytelling from Tennessee Williams, and I think we can observe a sharp difference in audiences who respond to the early successes — plays belonging to the accepted canon of great American work — and those audiences, usually younger, who respond to the material written after 1961.

By 1968, the challenges of his grotesque narrative mode (and that’s not meant as a pejorative) had become too much for commercial theater success. The range of Williams’s sympathies extended beyond that of his critics and certainly beyond the limits of Broadway entertainment. Kingdom of Earth (under its initial title, The Seven Descents of Myrtle) closed after 29 performances.

One reason may be that Williams had, arguably, given up the “aesthetic of the closet” and had begun to write narratives that announced the problems of erotic identity more directly. But there were other obstacles, too, difficulties of tone: Williams was always bitterly critical of social scapegoating, and his fable-like portraits of that menacing social “machinic,” are sometimes viewed as bombastic. Perhaps they are. Is that inappropriate? His stories, while never without humor, will often conclude with a denouement suitable to horror.

In Kingdom of Earth, Lot (Daniel Felix de Weldon) and Myrtle (Susan Priver), newlyweds, have arrived at Lot’s childhood home during a terrific rainstorm. They don’t really know each other. And this is the source of a frightening comic tone in the opening movements of the play. We gather that Myrtle is evidently a beard for the homosexual Lot, but that she is unaware of her situation. Lot’s casual dismissal of Myrtle’s eager and excited manner, his expressions of revulsion at the sound of her voice, his dislike of being touched, his constant storytelling about his late mother with the details of his mother’s superior refinement — this is all masterly writing by Williams, and beautifully performed by de Weldon. That Myrtle doesn’t understand her relation to Lot might suggest that she is not very bright (and Williams never treats her with less than complete sympathy) or that she prefers to live in fantasy. We can see that she is at risk.

Lot’s half-brother Chicken (Brian Burke), has been living on the property. He is of mixed-race, perhaps mulatto or quadroon, son of the brothers’ late, vicious father and a Black mother. He holds a contract that deeds the house and property to him in the event of Lot’s death. And Lot’s death is imminent.

As a series of intimate struggles unfolds among the three, the rains continue, and the crest of the flood gathers upstream, until we hear the dynamiting of the levees.

Director Arabian badly miscalculates the strength of the writing in several key moments. He overloads the performance with a cinematic soundtrack (of questionable taste) and with lighting effects that signal a shift into fantasy. But this is confused, unnecessary narrative grammar.

The first time this happens is during Myrtle’s account of “becoming the queen” on a sob-story TV game show, “The Take-Life-Easy Queen,” with her subsequent marriage to Lot on that same program. This is unmistakably great writing for the stage, which may do all its work with simple, quiet performance. But it’s drowned-out by the production. Priver, as Myrtle, has to shout the material and perform as though she is “re-living” the memory.

The action of this passage — incredible but plausible, and extremely funny — is actually a simple report by Myrtle, and possibly offered to Chicken as a generous, genteel gesture to a new family member. There wasn’t a single laugh in the house during the loud staging of this passage, much less reflection on questions about Myrtle’s sensitivity, her past, or her view.

Given these caveats about tone, nevertheless, I was glad to have the unusual opportunity to see Kingdom of Earth, and to imagine what it might be.

Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West LA; Thu.-Sat. 8 pm., Sun. 2 pm.; through August 14. (310) 477-2055 ext. 2, odysseytheatre.com. One hour and 10 minutes without intermission.