In the Green
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Cititour.com Review
These days, every fictional superhero gets his or her own “origin” story – so why shouldn’t a real-life saint deserve equal treatment? That rationale is part of the explanation behind “In the Green,” the audacious new musical by Grace McLean at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater, which explores the lesser-known early life of St. Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century woman who, among other accomplishments, became the author of the world’s first mystery play, a composer, a linguist, and, above all, a voice for women in the church.
On a deeper level, though, “In the Green” is a rather damning look on how women of that era were not just made to feel inferior but treated without any real regard for their humanity. As the show relates, eight-year-old Hildegarde is essentially abandoned by her noble parents for being “too sickly” -- and ultimately too hard to handle. As a result, she is tithed to the church, where she is literally entombed for three decades with the aristocratic Jutta (played by McLean), a headstrong woman who has turned her back on the world and chosen a life of solitude, or as she sees it, complete freedom from the male-dominated society that has “broken” her and which she believes will continue do to so. Sleep and food have been replaced by prayer and endless digging in the ground.
To force Hildegard (played collectively by the extremely talented Rachel Duddy, Ashley Perez Flanagan and Hannah Whitney) to follow her extreme example is Jutta’s main goal. But the younger woman, while sometimes complying with Jutta's mandates, nonetheless remains convinced that she – and Jutta – can once again become whole in another way. In order to do so, though, each woman must confront the incident that “broke” her, which only happens when (in of the show’s many surreal twists) Hildegard travels “underground” and discovers the literal weakness Jutta has buried (embodied by the excellent Mia Pak).
Watching McLean – who has thrilled audiences in “The Great Comet” and “Alice by Heart” – is almost a religious experience in itself; she has a dynamic presence that almost dares you to look away and a powerful voice that reverberates in your soul. As a songwriter, she smartly combines African, Asian and American-influenced melodies (played by a small but intense four-person band), and the near-hypnotic and deeply felt lyrics in such songs as “The Rule” and “Eve,” which help explain Jutta’s unusual outlook on life and create a more sympathetic portrait of a potentially difficult character.
McLean’s own weakness, sadly, is as a playwright, and much of the libretto undercuts the piece’s effectiveness. The work’s too-contemporary tone and dialogue (especially in its first scene) is oddly jarring; the story can be a bit too confusing for those unfamiliar with Hildegard’s life to follow at times (especially at the very end), and, above all, McLean’s decision not to end the show (which clocks in at under 90 minutes) at Jutta’s death but instead to give us a brief, summarized glimpse into Hildegard’s future isn’t particularly satisfying. (Indeed, Hildegard’s latter life, as I later learned, is so fascinating that it really deserves an entire second act.)
Fortunately, the inventive director Lee Sunday Evans (represented last season by the award-winning “Dance Nation”), working alongside the excellent set designer Kristen Robinson (with an assist from puppet designer Amanda Villabos), creates some remarkable visual elements and serves up a surprisingly fluid staging of this possibly static material -- along with aiding all five women deliver such outstanding performances.
I suspect a piece this ambitious, original and thoroughly unconventional could never produce enough “green” to warrant a commercial run, especially in today’s ultra-tricky theatrical climate. Therefore, interested audiences should take advantage of this brief run while they can.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.lct.org/shows/green
Cast
Rachael Duddy, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Grace McLean, Mia Pak, Hannah Whitney
Open/Close Dates
Opening 6/8/2019
Closing 8/4/2019
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Claire Tow Theater
150 West 65 Street
New York, NY 10023
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